Lena Robinson v. Diamond Housing Corporation, 463 F.2d 853 (1972)

Citation: Lena Robinson v. Diamond Housing Corporation, 463 F.2d 853 (1972)
Parent Document: Lena Robinson v. Diamond Housing Corporation, 463 F.2d 853 (1972)
Jurisdiction: DC (municipal)
Effective Date: 1972-04-03
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/304588/lena-robinson-v-diamond-housing-... ↗

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Thus the issue which separates the parties is not whether this case is "different" from Edwards, but rather whether anything about the case takes it out of the general principle enunciated in Edwards. It is therefore insufficient merely to announce, as the District of Columbia Court of Appeals did, that Edwards should be "limited to its facts." This statement only begs the question of which facts should set the principled limits on the Edwards doctrine. We shall postpone until Section B infra any discussion of whether the landlord's inability to receive rent and desire to take his unit off the market are such facts and are hence sufficient to take this case out of the Edwards rule. For now, it suffices to note that we can see no reason why anything should turn on the different legal status of this tenant or the different use to which she put the Housing Regulations. A tenant at sufferance, like a month-to-month tenant, can be evicted at the expiration of 30 days for any legitimate reason or for no reason. But both types of tenants are guaranteed the same rights by the housing code, and both play a role in the private enforcement mechanism established by the City Council. That mechanism depends in part on the right to withhold rent when a unit is rendered unsafe and unsanitary by substantial housing code violations. See Regulations Secs. 2902.1, 2902.2. This right would be shallow indeed if the landlord were free to penalize its exercise by eviction. In fact, if the new right were so burdened, it is hard to see how it would be new at all, since a tenant has always had the dubious "right" to refuse payment of rent and thereby risk eviction. Surely, then, the legislature no more intended to permit retaliatory evictions as punishment for rent withholding than it intended to permit such evictions as punishment for reporting housing code violations.

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