PORTLAND – The Maine Supreme Judicial Court this week is scheduled to hear appeals of two Hancock County civil cases. One case concerns the removal of Hanukkah decorations in an Ellsworth apartment complex and a subsequent eviction of a Jewish tenant. The other is about the firing of a former county employee.

The justices will hear Thursday an appeal of the attempted eviction of Howard Budman from the Union River Apartments in Ellsworth. The Jewish man’s disagreement with the management of the federally subsidized housing project began in November 2002 when Budman set up Hanukkah decorations next to Christmas decorations in the complex.

The decorations allegedly were removed after some Christian residents objected to them. Budman filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission claiming that the owner and managers of the complex, Union River Associates and Liberty Management Inc., did not respond to his complaints and that their lack of action allowed the situation to escalate. There were acts of vandalism against Budman’s vehicle, which was marked by a swastika and other anti-Semitic symbols.

When Budman filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission, which ruled unanimously in his favor, the complex owners filed an eviction notice against him, according to Budman’s attorney Sam Lanham of Bangor. Budman told the MHRC that he placed the back rent in an escrow account until management took action.

Evictions are handled in Maine’s District Courts and must be appealed to Superior Court, before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court reviews them. Budman represented himself in those proceedings, according to Lanham. The 5th District Court in Ellsworth ruled that it had no jurisdiction to consider his constitutional defense that the eviction violated his First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.

“We are arguing that the District Court made a mistake when it would not consider the defense that Mr. Budman raised that he should not be evicted because the eviction was a retaliation and in violation of his constitutional rights,” Lanham said Monday. “The District Court can hear it and should have allowed that evidence and ruled upon it.”

The eviction has been stayed pending the outcome of the case, according to Lanham, and Budman continues to deposit his monthly rent in the escrow account.

The justices also will hear Wednesday the appeal of Ronald Stanley, a former maintenance supervisor, who sued Hancock County commissioners in 2002 claiming that he was wrongfully fired in March 2001. He claimed under the Whistleblower Protection Act that he was terminated after he made “frequent and repeated oral and written complaints about what he considered to be unsafe and illegal electrical wiring practices,” according to documents filed two years ago in Hancock County Superior Court.

According to court documents, Stanley held the position of maintenance supervisor and reported directly to the commissioners before Perley Urquhart was hired as facilities director in 2000 and become Stanley’s supervisor. Urquhart, in personnel memos that are part of the court record, claimed that Stanley appeared to have difficulty making the transition from a department head to a subordinate.

Last August, Maine Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm granted the commissioners’ motion for summary judgment. In the ruling, Hjelm found that Stanley’s complaint about the wiring practices were unrelated to the county’s decision to fire Stanley.

The appeal was filed a week later.

“To not let this case go to a jury would be similar to a judge in a murder defense hearing the defendant say, “I shot her by accident, not intentionally,” and then acquitting the defendant and not letting the case to the jury,” Stanley’s attorney A.J. Greif of Bangor said Monday.

Summary judgment was granted on the statement of just one county commissioner stating that the commissioners did not intend to discriminate, the attorney said.

If the state’s high court overturns the decision, the case would be sent back to Hancock County Superior Court for a civil jury trail, according to Greif.

Other cases scheduled to be argued this week include:

The appeal of Christopher Rush, a Penobscot County man, who wants to change his minor child’s surname over the objection of the child’s mother.

The appeal of the Maine Department of Human Services over a district court’s decision in Kennebec County to relieve Jerome Blaisdell of paying back child support after DNA testing showed that he was not the father of the child in question.