Latch assembly for movable closure

In combination:

• a) a movable closure mounted to a frame for movement relative to the frame between open and closed positions,
• said movable closure having a front and rear and a peripheral edge between the front and rear of the movable closure;
• and
• b) a latch assembly in an operative position on the movable closure, the latch assembly comprising:
• a housing having a front, a rear and a wall with a forwardly facing surface,
• the housing further having laterally spaced walls and vertically spaced walls defining in conjunction with the housing wall with the forwardly facing surface a forwardly opening cup-shaped receptacle;
• and
• an actuating assembly that is changeable between first and second states,
• the actuating assembly including an actuator element that is operable to selectively change the actuating assembly from the first state into the second state,
• the housing wall with the forwardly facing surface having an opening therethrough to allow the actuating assembly to extend from forwardly of the housing wall with the forwardly facing surface through the opening to rearwardly of the housing wall with the forwardly facing surface and reposition a latch element at the rear of the housing as an incident of the actuating assembly changing from the first state into the second state,
• the opening being located to be substantially midway both between the laterally spaced housing walls and between the vertically spaced housing walls,
• the actuating assembly comprising a paddle residing at least partially within the housing receptacle and pivotably connected to the housing for movement around an axis between first and second positions to change the actuating assembly from the first state into the second state,
• said paddle having a wall with a peripheral edge as viewed from the front of the assembly and spaced edge portions spaced from each other by a first distance along a line that is substantially orthogonal to the axis,
• the paddle wall having a rearwardly facing surface,
• said actuator element comprising a cantilevered post which projects rearwardly from the paddle wall at a location spaced from each of the edge portions by a distance at least equal to 1/4 of said first distance,
• the cantilevered post being oriented to project in a direction generally perpendicular to the first wall,
• there being a space between the peripheral edge of the paddle and the housing so that fingers on a user's hand can move rearwardly into the space and engage the rearwardly facing surface on the paddle wall to draw a part of the paddle forwardly to pivot the paddle from the first position into the second position,
• said cantilevered post being fixedly connected to the paddle wall,
• said latch assembly further comprising a latch element that is movable between a latched position and a released position,
• said cantilevered post driving the latch element from one of the latched and released positions into the other of the latched and released positions as an incident of the paddle moving from the first position into the second position.