5
Although the Court of Appeals characterized Rudeen’s motion as one for summary
judgment, Silver, 10 Wn. App. 2d at 677-78, careful review of the record reveals that the posture
of this case is best understood as dismissal at the pleading stage. CR 12(c); Trujillo v. Nw. Tr.
Servs., Inc., 183 Wn.2d 820, 827 n.2, 355 P.3d 1100 (2015).
6
See also Werner Z. Hirsch, Landlord-Tenant Laws and Indigent Black Tenants, in 10
RESEARCH IN LAW & ECONOMICS: THE ECONOMICS OF URBAN PROPERTY RIGHTS 129, 130 (Austin
J. Jaffe guest ed., 1987) (“In fact, many landlord-tenant laws posed since the mid 60s came into
being, to no small extent, in response to the civil rights movement.”); Mary Ann Glendon, The
Transformation of American Landlord-Tenant Law, 23 B.C. L. REV. 503, 505 (1982) (“Underlying
these latter changes is the idea that shelter is a basic human necessity, and that public regulation
of the terms and conditions on which it is offered and held is therefore appropriate.”).
7
For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.
Silver v. Rudeen Mgmt. Co.
No. 98024-1
conditions, rental housing became increasingly regulated during this period, as
Congress passed the Fair Housing Act of 1968,7 the Uniform Law Commission
promulgated the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act of 1972 (URLTA), 8
and state courts and legislatures moved away from principles of property law and
toward principles of contract in the law of leasing. Mary Ann Glendon, The
Transformation of American Landlord-Tenant Law, 23 B.C. L. REV. 503, 503-05
(1982); Rabin, supra, at 554.
Washington State was among the jurisdictions to pass significant legislation
to shape and regulate the respective rights of tenants and landlords during this period.