Powell v. Anderson, 32118.
| Decision Date | 27 December 1946 |
| Docket Number | No. 32118.,32118. |
| Parties | POWELL v. ANDERSON et al. |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
POWELL
v.
ANDERSON et al.
No. 32118.
Supreme Court of Nebraska.
Dec. 27, 1946.
Appeal from District Court, Douglas County; Sears, Judge.
Action by Warren Powell against Ray Anderson and Martha Anderson to recover rental overcharges and penalties under the Emergency Price Control Act. Judgment for plaintiff and defendants appeal.
Reversed and remanded.
1. The courts of this state will take judicial notice of general rules and regulations, established and published by a federal agency pursuant to law.
2. In an action by a tenant to recover rental overcharges and damages from a
[25 N.W.2d 402]
landlord under the Federal Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, the establishment by law or order of proper authority of the ceiling price claimed to have been violated must be proven by competent evidence to sustain a recovery.
3. An unsigned and unauthenticated copy of a purported order of a governmental agency, produced from the files of such agency, is secondary evidence, raising no presumption of the actual execution of the original, and is inadmissible without foundational proof that it is a true copy of an original which was in fact executed by a proper officer of the agency and that the original is now unavailable.
4. In an action by a tenant against a landlord to recover overcharges and damages under the Federal Emergency Price Control Act, an instruction to the jury that it should bear in mind ‘that this is a vital emergency statute which the Supreme Court has said is not to be administered grudgingly. If a post-war collapse of values is to be avoided, the statute and regulations thereunder must be strictly enforced and you can help do that by an appropriate exercise of discretion in the award of damages' is an improper invasion of the function of the jury and constitutes prejudicial error.
Kennedy, Holland, DeLacy & Svoboda, of Omaha, for appellants.
Gross & Welch and John F. MacKenzie, all of Omaha, for appellee.
Heard before SIMMONS, C. J., CARTER, MESSMORE, YEAGER, CHAPPELL, and WENKE, JJ., and WILSON, District Judge.
WILSON, District Judge.
This is an action wherein plaintiff and appellee seeks to recover from the defendant and appellant rental overcharges and penalties under section 205(e) of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 33, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 925(e). Plaintiff, in his petition, alleges, and it is undisputed, that plaintiff as tenant rented an apartment in Omaha from defendant, its owner, and paid him as rent therefor the sum of $32.50 per month for four months beginning January 19, 1945. Plaintiff also alleges that this rental charged him was in excess of the maximum rental of $30 per month fixed for said apartment, under said Emergency Price Control Act, by the Office of Price Administration in its Omaha office, and that accordingly plaintiff seeks and is entitled to recover from defendant under the provisions of said Act, the sum of $50 for each of the alleged monthly overcharges, or a total of $200 together with a reasonable attorney's fee and costs.
Defendant's answer admits his ownership and plaintiff's tenancy of the apartment involved, during the period alleged, but denies the alleged overcharges and the other allegations of the petition. Plaintiff's reply is a general denial. Martha Anderson was joined as defendant but the action was dismissed as to her by the court at the conclusion of the evidence, and there is no cross-appeal from this action by plaintiff.
The case was submitted to the jury which returned a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $150 against the remaining defendant, the admitted owner of the apartment, and judgment was entered against said defendant for said amount and the costs together with an attorney's fee of $100 allowed...
To continue reading
Request your trial