Jones v. Sheetz, 4112.

• Decision Date: 29 May 1968
• Docket Number: No. 4112.,4112.
• Citation: 242 A.2d 208
• Parties: Errol A. JONES, Appellant, v. Charles E. SHEETZ t/a C. H. Parker Company, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

Page 208

242 A.2d 208

Errol A. JONES, Appellant, v. Charles E. SHEETZ t/a C. H. Parker Company, Appellee.

No. 4112.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued March 11, 1968.

Decided May 29, 1968.

Brian Michael Olmstead, Washington, for appellant.

Joseph H. Schneider, Washington, with whom Albert Ginsberg and Herbert D. Horowitz, Washington, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before HOOD, Chief Judge, and MYERS and KELLY, Associate Judges.

MYERS, Associate Judge:

This appeal by a tenant is from a judgment in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the trial court restoring possession of improved real property to the landlord.

The record discloses that on January 19, 1962, the tenant executed an agreement for the lease of a house from appellee on a month-to-month basis at a rental of $135 per month. The agreement specified that the house was to be used as a "private dwelling and for no other purpose whatsoever" and that the tenant must "comply with all laws and all health, fire and police regulations with respect to said premises." To, regain possession, the landlord was obliged to give the tenant a 30-day written notice to quite, but in the event the tenant failed to comply with any provision of the lease, the 30-day notice was wavied. The required monthly rental was paid until January 1966.

On March 29, 1966, appellee filed a complaint for possession of real estate in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the trial court, alleging the tenant's violation of the rental agreement by using the premises for an unlawful purpose and failing to comply with health, fire and police regulations. At trial and before us the tenant contended that the rental agreement was void from the date of its execution because various violations of the Housing Regulations of the District of Columbia existed when he took possession. After review of the records of the Housing Division of the Department of Licenses and Inspections, the trial judge found that no violations of the Housing Regulations existed when the tenant acquired possession. The fact upon which the tenant bases his appellate argument was thus not proven at trial and the argument before us must therefore fail.

The tenant next argues that two provisions of the rental agreement render it unenforceable: (I) the clause requiring the tenant to "comply with all laws and all health, fire and police regulations," and (II) the provision for waiver of the 30-day notice in the event the tenant violated any provision of the lease. He also contends that the trial judge, in deciding whether the agreement was unconscionable, erred in failing to consider the commercial setting in which the rental agreement was executed.

I

The requirement that the tenant "comply with all laws and all health, fire and police regulations" means only that he must comply with the legal requirements and restrictions usually placed upon tenants.¹ It does not shift the burden of compliance with other laws and regulations from the landlord to the tenant. This was, in fact, the understanding between the parties in the present case. During the period of occupancy, the landlord made repairs and also reimbursed the tenant when work done was of the kind for which a landlord is responsible. The clause challenged by the tenant did not compel him to expend unusually large sums of money, as he contends. Furthermore, the terms of the rental agreement are not so one-sided as to make it apparent "from the intrinsic nature and subject of the bargain itself" that "no man in his senses and not under delusion" would make such a bargain. Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co., 121 U.S.App.D.C. 315, 319, 350 F.2d 445, 449 (1965), f. 7, quoting Lord Hardwicke in Earl of Chesterfield v. Janssen, 28 Eng. Rep. 82, 100 (1751).

II

Waiver of the 30-day notice provision was conditioned upon the failure of the tenant to comply with the provisions of the lease. The tenant thus had complete control over the landlord's ability to invoke this clause. As long as the tenant complied with the provisions of the rental agreement, the landlord had to furnish the tenant with written notice to quit. It is not unfair or unreasonable to expect compliance by a tenant with provisions of an agreement which are not unconscionable and do not unfairly burden him.

III

The record also convinces us that the trial judge did consider the background in which the lease was signed. He specifically took note of the fact that the tenant was an educated man who had completed three years of law school, regularly worked as a tax consultant, and was not likely to execute a legal agreement he did not fully read and understand. The trial judge also observed that although the lease was only a month-to-month agreement, the tenant occupied the house for more than four years before claiming that the rental agreement was oppressive and had been executed under duress. Such a long tenancy considerably dilutes the tenant's argument that he was forced to sign the agreement because a housing shortage had left him with no other place to live. After taking evidence of the circumstances surrounding the signing of the agreement, the trial judge found that the tenant was neither tricked nor coerced into signing an agreement which he did not understand and which embodied terms he did not approve. This ruling is supported by substantial evidence in the record.

Accordingly, the trial judge correctly found that the tenant did not carry his responsibility of showing that the agreement or the circumstances surrounding its execution were so one-sided as to prohibit its enforcement.

IV

The tenant next...