Evening star., 1942-02-15
By JOHN H. CASSADY, Jr.


Washington started formal hear
ings under the District Rent Control
Act yesterday with an information
ally favored production featuring a
2-hour and IS minute battle over
how much rent should be charged
for q Charming, unique" George
town house.
Rent Examiner j. Warren Wilson
announced at the outset that no
smoking would be permitted in the
hearing room. 1t was PROBABLY just
as well, because of the smoke that
billowed from the ensuing battle be-
tween an American-born countess
and the wife of British r. A. F.
flight commander.
Before entering the fray. Countess
Eleanor Palffy, landlord in the case,
and pretty, brown-haired Mrs. Ann
Holman, the tenant, agreed that
they could not conciliate their Diff
ferences over how much rent should
be paid for the home at 1924
Thirty-f fifth street NV, where Mrs.
Holman has been living since last
fall.
Parade of Appraisers.
A half hour had been allotted for
the hearing, but a parade Of furni-
ture appraisers, interior decorators,
building contractors, real estate
agents and brokers dragged the
hearing out almost three hours.
Wearing the Red Cross uniform
she uses as an instructor In nurses
aid, Countess Palffy. who was driven
from her Paris home when France
fell, regaled the rent examiner and
q handful of spectators with a de-
scription of what she had done to
transform the Georgetown home
into something more than an ordi-
nary six-room house.
"Why. it was just shell when
I got it," the countess said, ex-
planning that she leased the home
in the fall of 1910 and then set
about changing it into Charm
ing, unique" house. She got land
scape architect to make garden
and fixed up a. Toulouse like .
gingerbread house" IN one end OF
the garden.
when everything's IN bloom"
said the countess, why. it's simply
ravishing."
She said she spent $500 furnish
ing the house and $1,000 remodel
ing and redecorating it. She told
how she paid 1926 for four draw
ing room curtains, $132 for eight
bamboo chairs and seat covers, $59.52
for a round wall mirror.
But counsel for Mrs. Holman dis
agreed sharply with Countess
Palffy's figures. The attorney. Ar
thur H. Clephane, called to the
witness stand a District Court ap-
praiser. an interior decorator and
q building contractor In an effort
to show that the countess had
exaggerated.
The appraiser, Cyril ]. Smith,
placed a "top" value on the furnish
ines, which the Countess said had
cost $500, at $1,700 and said a
"fair value" would be about $500.
The interior decorator, Harry r.
Jaf1e, said he had charged $227 "a
for work he had done In the house,
and Tesnis r. Collier, the builder
who did the remodedng, said his
work had cost $85360.
"In other words" said Attorney
Clephane in summing up his case,
"these vague figures offered by
Countess Palffy are exaggerated.
Where she said she spent $4,000 In
remodeling and repairing, actually
she spent 41,166.58, as the interior
decorator and builder have testified"
Countess Palffy had petitioned the
rent administration to permit her
to raise the rent on the house from
$115 to $225 a month because Of the
$500 she said she had spent in
renovating it. The first figure is the
rent the house brought on January
l.. 1941, freezing date" under the
rent law.
The Countess attorney, Donald
Mclean, called two rental agents
Laura Harlan and Harriet Holther
who told how 1t has come to be the
vogue to live in old Georgetown