Declaring that the $10,000 suit of Mildred L. Gordon, Jewish co-ed at the University of Wisconsin who is suing the operators of Langdon Hall, one of the University’s women’s dormitories on the charge that it refused to admit her because she was a Jewess, was a “fictitious claim and not substantial,” the Mendota Building Corporation, defendant, filed its answer in the Federal Court here yesterday.
The defense claiming that the matter in controversy does not exceed three thousand dollars and that hence the court has no jurisdiction asks that the suit be dismissed. In the answer filed by William Ryan, attorney for the Mendota Building Company, a denial is made that the company had any knowledge that the student was “a devout members of the Jewish faith” or that at any time it had refused to “furnish the plaintiff with accommodations at Langdon Hall.”
A counter charge is made by the defendant that Miss Gordon refused a room in a neighboring house or hotel until she could be assigned to a room and had demanded instead that her money be returned and her baggage sent to an address where she had already engaged a room. With Judge Carl Z. Luse ill, it is doubtful whether the case will reach the calendar until next December.
On January 10 Miss Gordon had filed suit on a charge of discrimination, basing her charge on the fact that after the dormitory had approved her application she was denied admission when she arrived with her baggage. She pointed out that on the application blank she was asked her religious affiliations.
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