Nearly a century after a Black family was forced out of Piedmont, the city is back in court over the same house. Descendants of Sidney and Irene Dearing filed suit this week in Alameda County, accusing the city of using a bogus condemnation process in 1924 to seize the couple’s home. The Dearings, described in the complaint as the first Black homeowners in Piedmont, were allegedly driven out after a campaign of threats and violence that included cross burnings, bricks hurled through windows, and an unexploded bomb left on the property. Plaintiffs are seeking damages for the long-term value of the lost property, a formal apology, and other remedies for what they describe as generational harm from the taking.
According to the Legal Defense Fund, the complaint was filed Monday in Alameda County Superior Court by LDF with pro bono counsel Seyfarth Shaw on behalf of a Dearing descendant. The filing recounts that Sidney Dearing bought the house at 67 Wildwood Avenue for $10,000 in January 1924, and that neighbors and local officials quickly began exerting pressure to push the family out. KTVU reports the city filed a condemnation action on June 19, 1924, and then later sold the property even though the road it claimed to need was never built.
As reported by Courthouse News, the suit identifies the plaintiff as Sidney Dearing’s great-granddaughter and lays out a history of intimidation that included gunfire aimed at the house and threats linked to Ku Klux Klan activity. The complaint says the Dearings sold the house to Piedmont in January 1925 after less than a year in the home, and that the city then resold it to a white buyer that August, according to the filing and contemporaneous records.
What the suit demands
The complaint seeks compensatory and punitive damages, restitution, and a declaration that the city was unjustly enriched by the 1924 taking, and it asks for an official apology to the family. Attorneys argue that statutes of limitation should be tolled because key records were concealed and only recently uncovered, a point emphasized in the Legal Defense Fund’s statement and local reporting. SFGATE notes the filing arrives amid growing national attention to historic racial takings.
Memorial and local reaction
Piedmont officials have already been working on a public memorial to the Dearings after local researcher Meghan Bennett unearthed the episode and published her findings online, efforts that city leaders say prompted a broader review of the town’s history. Piedmont Exedra and CBS San Francisco report the city has commissioned a “Dearing Portal” by Oakland designer Walter Hood and allocated initial funding. Plaintiffs’ lawyers say the recognition is meaningful but argue it does not substitute for legal and financial remedies tied to the loss of homeownership and opportunity.
Legal hurdles and next steps
Under state law, the City of Piedmont has 30 days to file an answer or request more time, and the case will open with motions over discovery and whether tolling applies. Plaintiffs’ counsel say they will push for access to archival court records and city files to prove concealment, while defense lawyers have signaled a rigorous review of the claims. In reporting by KTVU, a Seyfarth Shaw lawyer said the memorial is “not a remedy for injustice.”…