Stoner v. Humphries, 1168.

• Decision Date: 17 January 1952
• Docket Number: No. 1168.,1168.
• Citation: 87 A.2d 528
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals
• Parties: STONER v. HUMPHRIES.

Page 528

87 A.2d 528

STONER v. HUMPHRIES.

No. 1168.

Municipal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Argued December 17, 1951.

Decided January 17, 1952.

Herman Miller, Washington, D. C., for appellant.

William J. Rowan, Washington, D. C., for appellee.

Before CAYTON, Chief Judge, and HOOD and QUINN, Associate Judges.

CAYTON, Chief Judge.

In June 1951 Congress extended the life of the District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act, D.C.Code 1940, § 45-1601, et seq., and amended it in several respects. Public Law 63, 82nd Congress, approved June 30, 1951, 65 Stat. 98, 79 W.L.R. 673. One of the amendments, Section 2(4) provided that for housing accommodations rented on January 1, 1941 (the freeze date under the original Act), the maximum-rent ceiling should be increased to twenty per cent above the freeze date rental, upon the filing by the landlord with the Rent Administrator of a new rent schedule form. The question before us is whether tenants were obligated to pay such authorized increase when the landlord filed his schedule or whether tenants were also entitled to a thirty day notice.

The defendant in this case has been in possession of an apartment as a month-to-month tenant since 1940. Upon his refusal to pay rent due on August 1, 1951, he was sued for possession and defended on the ground that the increase authorized by Congress could not become effective unless the landlord first served on the tenant a thirty day notice to quit. In a full and carefully prepared memorandum the trial judge ruled that no such notice was required, that the new ceiling became effective when the schedule was filed with the Administrator, and that plaintiff was entitled to possession for non-payment of rent at the increased rate. The case is here on tenant's appeal.

In the pertinent part of the amended Act it is prescribed that "upon the filing by any landlord of any housing accommodations covered by this subsection, of a new rent schedule on a form prescribed by the Administrator and setting forth the pertinent circumstances as indicated by such form, the rent and service shall be adjusted and automatically effective upon the date of filing thereof. * * *" It was stipulated in the trial court that "the form prescribed by the Administrator embodying the new rent schedule was filed * * * at the office of rent control on July 30, 1951," and notice thereof given on the same day to the tenant. But despite landlord's compliance with the statute tenant contends that he was not entitled to the benefit of the increased rent authorized by Congress unless he first served on the tenant a thirty day notice to quit terminating the tenancy. We think the contention is utterly wrong.

A primary purpose of Rent Control legislation was to freeze existing tenancies and assure the right of continuing possession to tenants of dwelling property. Myers v. H. L. Rust Co., 77 U.S.App.D.C. 218, 134 F.2d 417; Warthen v. Lamas, D.C.Mun. App., 43 A.2d 759; Quick v. Paregol, D.C. Mun.App., 68 A.2d 211.

Nothing in the original Act or in any of the several ensuing amendments even suggests a Congressional intent that before a rent increase was to become effective, a landlord would have to go through the formality of first terminating the tenancy and then creating a new tenancy at the increased rental. This would be artificiality at its worst. Furthermore there would be no legal basis for a notice to quit, for this landlord admittedly could not claim that he was within any of the exceptions provided elsewhere in the Act,¹ which would authorize him to demand possession; he filed his suit only to enforce his right to the statutory increase. As we have said, the purpose of rent control is to preserve the continuity of existing tenancies, not to destroy it. The notice for which appellant is contending under Code 1940, § 45-902 is the familiar method of terminating a month-to-month tenancy — a condition precedent to filing a suit to...