Dargel v. Henderson, 611.

• Decision Date: 10 October 1952
• Docket Number: No. 611.,611.
• Citation: 199 F.2d 270
• Parties: DARGEL et al. v. HENDERSON, Director of Rent Stabilization.
• Court: U.S. Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

199 F.2d 270 (1952)

DARGEL et al. v. HENDERSON, Director of Rent Stabilization.

No. 611.

United States Emergency Court of Appeals.

Submitted September 29, 1952.

Filed October 10, 1952.

Freeman, Liebling & Barrett, Chicago, Ill., and Rex K. Nelson, Washington, D. C., for the complainants.

Ed Dupree, Gen. Counsel, and Charles P. Liff, Chief of Appeals Section, Office of Rent Stabilization, Washington, D. C., for the respondent.

George L. Turner, Chicago, Ill., for Harold H. Elfenbein, landlord.

Before MARIS, Chief Judge, and MAGRUDER, McALLISTER, LINDLEY and LAWS, Judges.

MARIS, Chief Judge.

In this case a complaint has been filed by five tenants who occupy housing accommodations owned by Harold H. Elfenbein and located in the Chicago Defense Rental Area. They seek to have certain eviction certificates issued by the Area Rent Director of the Chicago Defense Rental Area set aside by this court. These certificates were issued upon petition of their landlord, Harold H. Elfenbein, and a protest against the issuance of the certificates filed by the complainants was denied by the Director of Rent Stabilization. The certificates, which were apparently issued under Section 191 of Rent Regulation 1,¹ opened the way for the landlord to recover possession of his housing accommodations from these complainants by recourse to the courts of Illinois, if necessary. The Director of Rent Stabilization, the respondent named in the complaint, has filed a suggestion in this court that the landlord be joined as a party respondent in the proceeding. The landlord has answered the suggestion by joining in it and requesting that he be joined as a party. No objection to his joinder has been made by the complainants.

In the case of a protest filed under Section 407(a) of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended by the Defense Production Act Amendments of 1952, 50 U.S. C.A.Appendix, § 2107(a), against a regulation or order of general applicability relating to rent controls under the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 1881 et seq., the protestant is the only party to the protest proceeding before the Director of Rent Stabilization. In such a proceeding the Director, acting in the public interest, represents and protects those members of the general public whose interests might be adversely affected if the protest were granted. Orders of individual applicability, such as the eviction certificates involved in this case, present a different situation, however. For such a certificate bears immediately and directly upon the legal relationship between one landlord and one tenant. While the issuance of an eviction certificate may affect the public interest in a broad sense, it is of such immediate and direct concern to the landlord and tenant particularly involved that the Director of Rent Stabilization has recognized that both of them should be parties to the proceeding in which the Area Rent Director decides whether it should be granted.

Accordingly in Rent Procedural Regulation 3,² it is provided that in the case of a landlord's petition or a tenant's application for adjustment or other relief, including a petition for a certificate relating to eviction, the proceeding before the Area Rent Director shall be an inter partes one between the landlord and tenant in which objections to the petition or application may be filed by the other party together with supporting evidence and a brief, to be followed by rebuttal by the petitioner or applicant.³ Moreover it is provided that in the case of a protest against an order issued by an Area Rent Director in such an individual adjustment or eviction proceeding the party in whose favor the order was issued shall be a party respondent to the protest proceeding with...