Opinion ID: 1443395
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The claim based on lease.

Text: Defendant's judgment on the pleadings in the second count is based upon the Statute of Frauds relating to leases in excess of three years (68 P.S. § 250.202), supra, note 2. In Brown v. Hahn, 419 Pa. 42, supra, we held that the statute requiring a writing for land contracts (Act of March 21, 1772, 33 P.S. § 1) was waivable, hence raisable only in new matter, and not by preliminary objection. See also Royal Oil & Gas Corp. v. Tunnelton Mining Co., 444 Pa. 105, 282 A. 2d 384 (1971); Goldman v. McShain, 432 Pa. 61, supra ; Portnoy v. Brown, 430 Pa. 401, 243 A. 2d 444 (1968). The provisions relative to leases being a direct derivative of the above statute, it too is waivable and may be introduced only as an affirmative defense. In Goldman v. McShain, supra , we held that a defendant may not rely on the affirmative defense of the Statute of Frauds for land contracts to sustain a motion for judgment on the pleadings unless the plaintiff has failed to reply to new matter in which the defense is raised. This result followed logically from the fact that such a motion is in effect a demurrer, . . . afford[ing] defendant another opportunity, in addition to a preliminary objection, to challenge the sufficiency of a complaint. This similarity between preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer and the motion for judgment on the pleadings also gains support from the fact that in both cases the trial judge must accept as true all facts properly pleaded by the opposing party. When the defendant moves for summary judgment [sic], therefore, he is merely alleging that plaintiff's complaint has not stated a claim upon which relief may be granted. . . . [T]o say that a possible affirmative defense exists to a complaint is not to say that such a complaint is legally insufficient on its face. It may still state a claim upon which relief can be granted, even though the relief itself will eventually be denied should defendant prove his affirmative defense. 432 Pa. at 73. Because the provision of the Statute of Frauds for leases, like the one involved in Goldman relating to land contracts, is waivable, that case is controlling here. While it is true that the plaintiff in Goldman replied to the new matter, appellant here was not required to do so; appellee having failed to endorse his answer with a notice to plead, the new matter averments were automatically put in issue. See Pa. R.C.P. 1026 and 1029(d). [5] It follows that the motion for judgment should not have been granted. Even if it were proper to entertain a motion for judgment on the pleadings in these circumstances, appellant has again pleaded sufficient facts to avoid judgment at this stage. She claims that defendant occupied and used the premises from April, 1959 through January, 1962 but paid the rent only through March' 1961. The statute in question does not render unenforceable in their entirety leases which exceed three years in duration; its effect, rather, is to give violating leases the force and effect of leases at will, unless the parties recognize its existence by paying and accepting the rent for longer than one year, in which case the tenancy becomes one from year to year. Ferri v. Liberatoscioli, 338 Pa. 454, 456, 13 A. 2d 45 (1940). Here, almost two years had elapsed before the rent payments were stopped in March, 1961; thus it was only beginning on April 1, 1961 that the tenancy of appellee became one at will. In Flomar Corporation v. Logue, 418 Pa. 181, 183, 210 A. 2d 254 (1965), where a tenancy at will existed because of the failure of the lessor to sign a four-year written lease, we stated, Such being the case, an action cannot be maintained upon the covenant to pay rent, and lessor is relegated to an action of assumpsit for the rental value of the premises while the lessees were in possession. Having pleaded use and occupancy by appellee for the period from March, 1961 through January, 1962, appellant would be entitled, assuming the allegation were proved, to recover the rental value of the premises for that period.