Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/258/242/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 12:50:49+00:00

Document:
1. Chapters 942 and 947 of the New York Housing Laws, which suspend the landlord's right of action to recover possession from his tenant, except under specified conditions, and c. 944, providing that, in an action for rent under an agreement for premises occupied for dwelling purposes, it shall be a defense that the rent is unjust and unreasonable and the agreement oppressive, but permitting the landlord to plead, prove and recover a fair and reasonable rent, are constitutional. P. 258 U. S. 245. Marcus Brown Holding Co. v. Feldman, 256 U. S. 170.
2. The obligation to pay specified rent cannot be said to be impaired by a limitation on the recovery to what is fair and reasonable, made by a statute existing when the lease was made and carried into a subsequent statute. P. 258 U. S. 248.
3. A statute making it a defense in an action for rent that the rent agreed is unjust and unreasonable and the agreement oppressive provides a standard sufficiently definite to satisfy the due process clause of the Constitution. P. 258 U. S. 249. United States v. Cohen Grocery Co., 255 U. S. 81, distinguished.
194 App.Div. 482, 521, 230 N.Y. 634, 652, affirmed.
applied in favor of the tenants, were questioned on constitutional grounds, will be found in a note to the report of Marcus Brown Holding Co. v. Feldman, 256 U. S. 170.
A motion to dismiss or affirm was filed in each case on the ground that each is ruled by the decision in Marcus Brown Holding Co., Inc. v. Feldman, 256 U. S. 170, and both were postponed to the hearing on the merits.
The essential question presented for decision in the Marcus Brown Co. case was, and in these cases is, the constitutional validity of the Emergency Housing Laws of the New York, approved by the Governor September 27, 1920, cc. 942 to 953, inclusive, Laws of New York 1920.
of encouraging the building of dwellings by providing under specified conditions for their exemption from local taxation.
In No. 285, it is alleged that a described apartment was leased to the defendant from October 1, 1918, to October 1, 1920, at the stipulated rental of $1,450 per annum, payable in equal monthly installments in advance; that, while in possession under that lease in June, 1920, the defendant executed a new lease for two years, beginning on the expiration of the former one on October 1, 1920, at a rental increased to $2,160, payable in equal monthly installments in advance, and that he refuses to pay the installment due on October 1, 1920. Judgment for the one month's rent is prayed for.
The defendant admits the execution of the leases, as stated in the complaint, but avers that the second one was signed under the coercion and duress of threats of eviction, and that the rent stipulated for is "unjust, unreasonable and oppressive." He offers to pay the same amount of rent as was paid for the preceding month, and asserts the right to continue in possession under the emergency acts. A motion for judgment on the pleadings presented the question of the constitutionality of c. 944 of the Emergency Housing Laws, and the state courts all held the chapter a constitutional and valid exercise of the police power.
In No. 287, it is averred that the defendant is a tenant holding over after expiration of his lease, that he refuses to surrender possession as he stipulated in his lease to do, and that he claims the right to retain possession under cc. 942 and 947 of the Emergency Housing Laws, which suspend the right of action to recover possession except under specified conditions, which are not applicable. A general demurrer to this complaint presented the question of the constitutionality of cc. 942 and 947 of the laws assailed, and the state courts all sustained them as valid.
In terms, the acts involved are "emergency" statutes, and, designed as they were by the legislature to promote the health, morality, comfort and peace of the people of the state, they are obviously a resort to the police power to promote the public welfare. They are a consistent interrelated group of acts essential to accomplish their professed purposes.
all agree that there was a very great shortage in dwelling house accommodations in the cities of the state to which the acts apply; that this condition was causing widespread distress; that extortion in most oppressive forms was flagrant in rent profiteering; that, for the purpose of increasing rents, legal process was being abused and eviction was being resorted to as never before, and that unreasonable and extortionate increases of rent had frequently resulted in two or more families being obliged to occupy an apartment adequate only for one family, with a consequent overcrowding, which was resulting in insanitary conditions, disease, immorality, discomfort, and widespread social discontent.
If this Court were disposed, as it is not, to ignore the notorious fact that a grave social problem has arisen from the insufficient supply of dwellings in all large cities of this and other countries, resulting from the cessation of building activities incident to the war, nevertheless these reports and the very great respect which courts must give to the legislative declaration that an emergency existed would be amply sufficient to sustain an appropriate resort to the police power for the purpose of dealing with it in the public interest.
The argument heard in these cases and further examination of the subject confirms us in the assumption made in the Marcus Brown Co. case, 256 U. S. 170, 256 U. S. 198, that the emergency declared existed when the acts were passed.
It is strenuously argued, as it was in Block v. Hirsh, 256 U. S. 135, and in the Marcus Brown Co. case, supra, that the relation of landlord and tenant is a private one, and is not so affected by a public interest as to render it subject to regulation by the exercise of the police power.
on substantially all of the grounds now urged against the Emergency Housing Laws, this Court, in a per curiam opinion, affirmed a decree of the Court of Appeals of New York (179 N.Y. 325) sustaining regulations requiring large expenditures by landlords as a valid exercise of the police power. Moeschen v. Tenement House Department, 203 U.S. 583. To require uncompensated expenditures very certainly affects the right of property in land as definitely, and often as seriously, as regulation of the amount of rent that may be charged for it can do. Many decisions of this Court were cited as sufficient to justify the summary disposition there made of the question, as one even then so settled by authority as not to be longer open to discussion.
In the opinion in Block v. Hirsh, supra, this Court cites in support of this same conclusion, under the circumstances there disclosed, which are not to be distinguished from those presented in this case, the later cases following: Strickley v. Highland Boy Gold Mining Co., 200 U. S. 527; Welch v. Swasey, 214 U. S. 91; Plymouth Coal Co. v. Pennsylvania, 232 U. S. 531; St. Louis Poster Advertising Co. v. St. Louis, 249 U. S. 269; Perley v. North Carolina, 249 U. S. 510.
These authorities show that, from time to time for a generation, as occasion arose, this Court has held that there is no such inherent difference in property in land from that in tangible and intangible personal property as exempts it from the operation of the police power in appropriate cases, and in both the Marcus Brown and Block cases, supra, it was held, in terms, that the existing circumstances clothed the letting of buildings for dwelling purposes with a public interest sufficient to justify restricting property rights in them to the extent provided for in the laws in those cases objected to.
had expired relied upon cc. 942 and 947 of the New York Housing Laws, and that the landlord challenged their validity. But this Court held them valid. We have seen that, in No. 287, here under consideration, the defendant tenant is holding over after the expiration of his lease, and that he justifies under cc. 942 and 947. Thus, this No. 287 presents precisely the same questions of fact and law as the Marcus Brown Co. case presented, and must be ruled by it.
"It shall be a defense to an action for rent accruing under an agreement for premises in a city, . . . occupied for dwelling purposes that such rent is unjust and unreasonable, and that the agreement under which the same is sought to be recovered is oppressive."
It is contended that the validity of this c. 944 was not directly presented in the Marcus Brown Co. case, and that the impairment of contracts clause of the Constitution was not considered or decided in that case as it must be in this one.
The first is that the defense sustained in this case by the court below was provided for by c. 136 of the Laws of New York of 1920, in effect when the lease involved was executed.
The provision was simply carried into c. 944 when that chapter was amended in September, 1920, and, of course, a lease made subsequent to the enactment of a statute cannot be impaired by it. Oshkosh Water Works Co. v. Oshkosh, 187 U. S. 437, 187 U. S. 446.
"The chief objections to these acts have been dealt with in Block v. Hirsh. In the present case, more emphasis is laid upon the impairment of the obligation of the contract of the lessees to surrender possession and of the new lease which was to have gone into effect upon October 1, last year. But contracts are made subject to this exercise of the power of the state when otherwise justified, as we have held this to be. Manigault v. Springs, 199 U. S. 473, 199 U. S. 480; Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Mottley, 219 U. S. 467, 219 U. S. 482; Chicago & Alton R. Co. v. Tranbarger, 238 U. S. 67, 238 U. S. 76-77; Union Dry Goods Co. v. Georgia Public Service Corporation, 248 U. S. 372, 248 U. S. 375; Producers Transportation Co. v. Railroad Commission of California, 251 U. S. 228, 251 U. S. 232."
Palpably, as to this constitutional objection to c. 944 the prior decision is ruling.
"it shall be a defense to an action by a landlord that the rent demanded is unjust and unreasonable, and that the agreement under which it is sought to be recovered is oppressive"
is too indefinite a standard to satisfy the due process of law clause of the Constitution.
"While the act is in force, there is little to decide except as to whether the rent allowed is reasonable, and, upon that question, the courts are given the last word."
The standard of the statute is as definite as the "just compensation" standard adopted in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, and therefore ought to be sufficiently definite to satisfy the Constitution. United States v. L. Cohen Grocery Co., 255 U. S. 81, dealing with definitions of crime, is not applicable.
Several other contentions are pressed upon the attention of the Court, chiefly with respect to the modifications of the remedial statutes, but such as were not specifically dealt with in the Marcus Brown Co. and Block cases, impress us as quite unimportant. Given a constitutional substantive statute, enacted to give effect to a constitutional purpose, the states have a wide discretion as to the remedies which may be deemed necessary to achieve such a result, and it is very clear that that discretion has not been exceeded in this instance by the State of New York.

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