Section 1942

Citation: Section 1942
Parent Document: Schweiger v. Superior Court, 476 P.2d 97 (1970)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 1970-11-10
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2610738/schweiger-v-superior-court/ ↗

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Nevertheless, some instructive judicial authority exists on the subject of retaliatory eviction. The leading contemporary case is Edwards v. Habib (1968) 397 F.2d 687 [130 App.D.C. 126], cert. den. (1969) 393 U.S. 1016 [21 L.Ed.2d 560, 89 S.Ct. 618]. In that matter, a tenant complained to District of Columbia housing officials about sanitation and housing code violations existing in her apartment, which her landlord had refused to repair, and the landlord responded with a notice to vacate the premises and obtained a default judgment for possession. The tenant then reopened the case and interjected as a defense that the notice to quit was served in retaliation for her complaints to the housing authorities. The defense was rejected as irrelevant at trial and on appeal to the district court. The circuit court reversed, ruling: "But while the landlord may evict for any legal reason or for no reason at all, he is not, we hold, free to evict in retaliation for his tenant's report of housing code violations to the authorities. As a matter of statutory construction and for reasons of public policy, such an eviction cannot be permitted.

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