Habib v. Thurston, 517 A.2d 1 (1986)

Citation: Habib v. Thurston, 517 A.2d 1 (1986)
Parent Document: Habib v. Thurston, 517 A.2d 1 (1986)
Jurisdiction: DC (municipal)
Effective Date: 1986-10-30
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1995493/habib-v-thurston/ ↗

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Accordingly, even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that the landlord was substantially justified in believing that res judicata barred the tenant’s counterclaim for excessive rent, see supra note 14, there was no such bar against the tenant’s effort to prove retaliatory motive for the present *11effort to evict her, based on her complaints since the inception of the tenancy. Any preclusion of a rent overpayment claim derived from the November 1982 default judgment cannot be said to have resolved, preclusively, the issue of the landlord’s present motive to evict, since that issue could not have been “essential to the judgment.” Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 27 (1982). The landlord therefore had no substantial justification for refusing to answer questions 7, 9, and 10.

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