Opinion ID: 1227125
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Heading: breach of the warranty of habitability as a defense or counterclaim to an action under utah's unlawful detainer statute

Text: In the case of Wade v. Jobe, 818 P.2d 1006, at 1010 (Utah 1991), we recognized the existence of a cause of action for breach of the warranty of habitability and discussed some possible remedies. In this case, we consider only whether breach of the warranty is a defense to an unlawful detainer action. Under contract principles, relief for a breach of the warranty of habitability is based on a failure of consideration rather than on some theory of eviction. As a result, the tenant should not have to vacate the premises to raise the claim. Especially where there is a shortage of rental housing, and given the cost and inconvenience of relocation, little would be accomplished if the tenant's only remedy for a breach of the warranty of habitability required vacation of the premises before taking action to recover for the breach. Thus, many courts allow the tenant to remain in possession, withhold rent installments accruing after the landlord's breach, and then raise the landlord's breach of the warranty of habitability as a counterclaim or defense when the landlord brings an eviction action for failure to pay rent. See Javins v. First Nat'l Realty Corp., 428 F.2d 1071, 1082-83, cert. denied, 400 U.S. 925, 91 S.Ct. 186, 27 L.Ed.2d 185 (1970). We hold that no legal doctrine, substantive or procedural, bars a tenant from raising this critical issue in an unlawful detainer action in this jurisdiction. Utah's unlawful detainer statute, Utah Code Ann. §§ 78-36-1 to -12.6, takes away the landlord's common law right to use self-help to remove a tenant. The statute grants the landlord a summary court proceeding to evict a tenant who has violated some express or implied provision of the lease. The statute provides five instances in which the tenant is in unlawful detainer, including the situation where the tenant defaults in the payment of rent and remains in possession. Utah Code Ann. § 78-36-3(3). The remedy for a successful landlord is restitution of the premises, treble damages, and recovery for waste or rent due. Utah Code Ann. § 78-36-10. If the unlawful detainer action is based on default in payment of rent, the judgment will also mandate forfeiture of the lease. Utah Code Ann. § 78-36-10(1). We note initially that nothing in the Utah unlawful detainer statute prohibits the assertion of any defense or counterclaim by the defaulting tenant-defendant. Nonetheless, we recognize that one of the purposes of the law is to provide a speedy resolution of the issue of possession. Based on this latter fact, in 1926, in Dunbar v. Hansen, 68 Utah 398, 250 P. 982 (1926), we disallowed the assertion of a counterclaim for rent abatement in an unlawful detainer action. Dunbar, 68 Utah 398, 250 P. at 985. The only remedy available to a defendant-tenant, we held, was to enjoin the summary proceeding by a separate action to determine the equities, thereby suspending the summary proceeding until the equitable determination was made. Id. (citing Williams v. Nelson, 65 Utah 304, 237 P. 217 (1925)). The Dunbar rule stood for twenty-five years, see Christy v. Guild, 101 Utah 313, 121 P.2d 401, 405 (1942); Forrester v. Cook, 77 Utah 137, 292 P. 206, 212-13 (1930), until we impliedly overruled it in White v. District Court, 120 Utah 173, 232 P.2d 785 (1951). White, a short per curiam opinion, indicated that from that point on, counterclaims were to be permitted in an unlawful detainer action. The holding in White resulted from the 1950 adoption of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. Rejecting the suggestion that the remedy for the defendant-tenant was to bring a separate action in equity, we cited the spirit and purpose of the New Rules ... to simplify and expedite procedure and to consolidate litigation wherever that could be done without confusion or prejudice to the rights of litigants. White, 120 Utah 173, 232 P.2d at 785. White was reaffirmed in 1977 in Lincoln Financial Corp. v. Ferrier, 567 P.2d 1102 (Utah 1977), with a majority agreeing that to promote judicial economy, a proper counterclaim arising out of the same transaction or business as the subject matter of the complaint could be asserted in an unlawful detainer action. Id. at 1104 & n. 1; see also id. at 1105 (Maughan, J., concurring). But see id. at 1107 (Ellett, C.J., concurring in the result) (a speedy determination of the right to possession is the purpose of such an action, and permitting counterclaims is not in harmony with that purpose). From a pleading perspective, therefore, this court has recognized a defendant-tenant's right to raise proper counterclaims in unlawful detainer cases. The legislature, too, apparently has recognized this right. See Utah Code Ann. § 78-36-8.5(4). Under the concept of dependence of covenants, a breach of the warranty of habitability is directly relevant to the issue of possession. See Green v. Superior Court, 10 Cal.3d 616, 111 Cal. Rptr. 704, 716-17, 517 P.2d 1168, 1180-81 (Cal. 1974). Having recognized a warranty of habitability, we conclude that a breach of that warranty must necessarily give rise to a counterclaim in an unlawful detainer action; otherwise, the tenant would be required to vacate before being able to raise the breach, a result entirely inconsistent with the policy behind our adoption of the implied warranty. While the state does have a significant interest in preserving a speedy repossession remedy, that interest is not strong enough to warrant a deprivation of a meaningful opportunity to raise a breach of the warranty of habitability. We reject, therefore, any limitation on the tenant's ability to raise a breach of the warranty of habitability as a defense or counterclaim to a landlord's unlawful detainer action for possession.