In unusually harsh language, the Massachusetts Appeals Court today ordered the Boston Housing Authority to restore the Section 8 housing voucher of a man who physically could not have attended hearings it held on his case because he was in jail at the time.

The court found the authority violated its own regulations for how to hold hearings and misled Melvin Furtick on whether he could appeal its rulings, telling him could not, when its own guidelines said he could.