Abstract
Edwards v. Habib is a recent decision from the United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, which allows tenants in month-to-month tenancies a defense against summary dispossess actions. Where the tenant had complained to local authorities that his dwelling did not meet the minimal housing standards in that jurisdiction, a landlord had been able to punish the complaining tenant through eviction. The tenant in the District of Columbia after Edwards is now permitted to assert as a defense to eviction the illegal retaliatory purpose of the landlord. The decision is an important judicial attempt to bring landlord-tenant law into conformity with the reality of a continuing domestic-housing shortage and the necessity to enforce municipal housing codes.
Lower Court Proceedings in Edwards v. Habib
The Court of Appeals Opinion in Edwards v. Habib … (a) Disposition of the Grounds of Statutory Interpretation and Public Policy … (b) The Constitutional Discussion
Legislative Responses to Retaliatory Eviction
The Response of the Courts to Retaliatory Evictions
Conclusion
Recommended Citation
Neil B. Danberg,
Protection for Citizen Complaints to Public Authorities—Prohibition of Retaliatory Evictions: The Case of Edwards v. Habib,
48 Neb. L. Rev. 1101
(1969)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol48/iss4/9