Pinching v. Wurdeman
| Decision Date | 05 April 1926 |
| Docket Number | No. 4373.,4373. |
| Citation | 12 F.2d 164,56 App. DC 223 |
| Parties | PINCHING v. WURDEMAN. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
S. H. Giesy, of Washington, D. C., for plaintiff in error.
Louis Ottenberg, of Washington, D. C., for defendant in error.
Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, VAN ORSDEL, Associate Justice, and BARBER, Judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals.
This case is here on writ of error to the municipal court of the District of Columbia from a judgment rendered for the balance found to be due under a rental contract.
It appears that plaintiff, the tenant, leased the premises for one year at the rate of $150 per month. The judgment was for an unpaid balance of $500. There was an item of $25 additional involved in the suit for cleaning the premises after the tenant vacated. This, however, was disallowed below and is not involved here.
The contract contained a provision requiring the landlord to "make all necessary exterior repairs during the term of the lease." It is rather difficult to determine from the pleas of the defendant, which were twice amended, exactly the ground of defense relied upon. Counsel in their briefs, however, have singled out the defense based on the failure of the landlord to comply with the foregoing provision of his contract.
The plea on which plaintiff especially relies is "nil debet," on the ground that "plaintiff failed to make the necessary exterior repairs, as by the covenant he promised to do, which resulted in the roof, gutters, and downspouts of the house leaking to such an extent that defendant was deprived of the use of the largest part of the house, and was in effect evicted therefrom, and the business of renting rooms, for which the plaintiff well knew she rented the house, was broken up, and the consideration for the rent failed, occasioning her a loss of $1,000."
The court sustained motions to strike the pleas, and a judgment for plaintiff was accordingly entered.
The mere allegation of a loss of $1,000 is not predicated upon facts sufficient to furnish a basis for recovery in damages, and the motion to strike this portion of the plea was properly sustained. Neither do we think that there is sufficient allegation of eviction from the house or any portion thereof, as the result of the conditions arising from the defective roof, to constitute a defense against an action for unpaid rent.
Unquestionably it is the law that, if a lessor wrongfully evicts a tenant from a part of the demised premises, the eviction suspends the entire rent until full possession is restored. In other words, the lessor cannot apportion his own wrong, and claim rent for the portion of the premises which has been left to the use of the tenant. The difficulty in the present case is that there is no claim set up for an actual eviction from any portion of the premises, resulting from the damage occasioned by the defective roof. The statement that the "defendant was in effect evicted therefrom" is a mere conclusion, unsupported by any statement or facts upon which the charge of eviction could be sustained, and the further statement that "the business of renting rooms, for which the...
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Bown v. Hamilton
...declare the leasehold at an end in an era when almost all covenants in a lease were deemed independent. See, e.g., Pinching v. Wurdeman, 56 App.D.C. 223, 12 F.2d 164 (1926) (covenant to pay rent and covenant to repair are independent). Only where the landlord had "evicted" the tenant was th......
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Ackerhalt v. Smith
...untenantable or unfit for the purpose for which they were rented by reason of his failure to comply with his agreement. Pinching v. Wurdeman, 56 App.D.C. 223, 12 F.2d 164; Westland Housing Corporation v. Scott, 312 Mass. 375, 44 N.E.2d 959. It is frequently argued, as here, that the acts or......
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