Wesson v. Leone Enterprises, Inc., 437 Mass. 708 (2002)

Citation: Wesson v. Leone Enterprises, Inc., 437 Mass. 708 (2002)
Parent Document: Wesson v. Leone Enterprises, Inc., 437 Mass. 708 (2002)
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts (state)
Effective Date: 2002-09-09
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6578571/wesson-v-leone-enterprises-inc/ ↗

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Exceptions to the independent covenants rule first emerged in *717the context of residential leases at the end of the Nineteenth Century. In 1892, this court held that the rule did not apply to the lease of “a furnished room or a furnished house for a few days or a few weeks or months.” Ingalls v. Hobbs, 156 Mass. 348, 350 (1892). The rationale for this exception “rested on the broader premise that we would not apply the independent covenants rule in those cases where the essential purpose of the lease was not the transfer of an interest in land but the use of the demised premises for immediate occupation.” Boston Hous. Auth. v. Hemingway, supra at 191. As it applied to residential leases, the independent covenants rule was completely supplanted in 1973, when we recognized that a residential “lease is essentially a contract between the landlord and the tenant wherein the landlord promises to deliver and maintain the demised premises in habitable condition and the tenant promises to pay rent for such habitable premises.” Id. at 198. “These promises constitute interdependent and mutual considerations.” Id.

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