Section 504B

Citation: Section 504B
Parent Document: Cent. Hous. Assocs., LP v. Olson, 929 N.W.2d 398 (2019)
Jurisdiction: Minnesota (state)
Effective Date: 2019-06-12
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8288834/cent-hous-assocs-lp-v-olson/ ↗

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The majority's interpretation of "complaint" as including reports to a government agency also fails because the Legislature has demonstrated that it knows how to refer to such reports when it intends to include them. A separate retaliation defense set out in Minn. Stat. § 504B.285 (2018), not directly relevant to the issues before us, provides that "[i]t is a defense to an action for recovery of premises following the alleged termination of a tenancy by notice to quit for the defendant to prove by a fair preponderance of the evidence that ... the alleged termination was intended in whole or part as a penalty for the defendant's good faith report to a governmental authority of the plaintiff's violation of a health, safety, housing, or building code or ordinance. " Minn. Stat. § 504B.285, subd. 2(2) (emphasis added). The emphasized text would clearly encompass the kinds of "complaints" to government agencies that the majority finds are encompassed within the phrase "complaint of a violation." But if the Legislature had intended the retaliation defense in Minn. Stat. § 504B.441 to apply to complaints to government entities, it could have used the same formulation that it used in section 504B.285. Instead, it referred to a "complaint of a violation." We generally assume that when the Legislature uses different words, it intends to refer to different things. Nelson v. Schlener , 859 N.W.2d 288, 294 (Minn. 2015). I see no reason for this case to be an exception.2

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