Opinion ID: 2305975
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dismissal of Zanders's Claims Against the Bakers

Text: Prior to the start of trial, the Bakers moved to strike Zanders's pleadings against them and for the entry of judgment in their favor in both the L&T Action and the Civil Action because of Zanders's failure to make the rent payments required by the protective order in the L&T Action. The trial court granted the motion in its entirety. In the same order, the court struck all of Zanders's claims against the Bakers, granted possession to the Bakers, and entered final judgment in their favor in both actions. The court denied Zanders's motion for reconsideration. It explained its rulings as follows: To the extent that [Zanders] violated... willfully and intentionally the protective order and had no justification for her failure to comply [with] the protective order for over a year, ... she cannot invoke the equitable jurisdiction of the court. In [the court's] view, all of her claims against the Bakers and defenses should be stricken. Zanders argues that the court erred in throwing out her claims in the Civil Action. We agree. In the Civil Action, Zanders charged the Bakers with fraud and tortious interference with her contractual right to purchase her home from Reid, and she sought monetary damages as well as equitable relief. The trial court's unclean hands rationale for striking those causes of action is flawed in two respects: the equitable doctrine known as unclean hands is inapplicable to a legal claim for money, [4] and it operates only where the plaintiff's misconduct occurred in connection with the same transaction that is the subject of her claim. [5] Moreover, our cases make clear that the court lacked grounds to strike Zanders's pleadings in her Civil Action against the Bakers merely because she had violated the protective order in the L&T Action. We have upheld the striking of a tenant's pleadings in a landlord and tenant action for failure of the tenant to make the payments required by a protective order. In those cases, however, the issue raised by the pleadings was merely the landlord's right to possession. The purpose of striking the tenant's pleadings is to provide the landlord with possession of the premises and to end the landlord-tenant relationship because the tenant is not paying the court-ordered rent. Thus, in approving the striking of the tenant's pleadings, we have explained that while the striking of ... pleadings would result in the termination of the tenancy, it would not otherwise foreclose the tenant's rights.... The tenant remains free to sue ... for breach of contract in the Civil Division of this Court.... Indeed, in a civil action based on breach of contract, the tenant may litigate claims not cognizable in the Landlord and Tenant Branch, in which only those breaches by the landlord which constitute housing code violations may be asserted. The striking of [a t]enant's pleadings will affect the tenant only insofar as it precludes the tenant from continuing to live in an apartment at which she or he is demonstrably unable to pay the rent. [6] In a later case, we reiterated the key point: The sanction [of striking a tenant's pleadings for failure to comply with a protective order] is not an adjudication of the validity of a particular rent amount but rather a mechanism for the court to enforce its order. Judgment for possession based on non-payment of a protective order does not have collateral estoppel effect.... [T]he remedy [of striking the tenant's pleadings] does not otherwise foreclose the tenant's rights.... The tenant remains free to sue under any civil theory available to him. [7] Thus, while the trial court was justified in entering judgment for possession in the L&T Action, we see no justification for striking Zanders's pleadings and granting judgment to the Bakers in the Civil Action. Her claims against the Bakers must be reinstated.