Carl v. Children's Hospital, 702 A.2d 159 (1997)

Citation: Carl v. Children's Hospital, 702 A.2d 159 (1997)
Parent Document: Carl v. Children's Hospital, 702 A.2d 159 (1997)
Jurisdiction: DC (municipal)
Effective Date: 1997-09-23
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2395626/carl-v-childrens-hospital/ ↗

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On other occasions the courts follow the legislature, as this court did, for example, by interpreting the Council's legislation governing summary possession actions as preempting the landlord's common law right of self-help to evict a tenant.[54] Similarly, we held that when the Council enacted a statute requiring employers to provide reasonably safe working conditions for wage earners, the common law defense of contributory negligence could not be used to bar recovery for an injury caused by the employer's failure to comply with the statute and related regulations.[55] The fact that the legislature has acted one or more times in a broad area of the law, therefore, does not mean that the courts are duty-bound to stay entirely away from it. To the contrary, the courts often have to change common law rules in that area to help make the new legislation work. As I see it, therefore, only when the legislature enacts a comprehensive, preemptive statutory scheme is the court precluded from introducing common law modifications of the rights the legislature created.

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