Court Opinion

ID: 9769887
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:06:37.343449+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:08.155865
License: Public Domain

AKIN, Justice,
dissenting.
I cannot agree that a cause of action for retaliatory eviction exists based upon public' policy as advanced by the majority. Those of us in the judiciary may think that wé perceive that which is in the public interest better than the elected legislators of the people; nevertheless, it is the function of our legislature, rather than the courts, to declare the public policy of this state. Carpenter v. Sheppard, 135 Tex. 413, 145 S.W.2d 562, 565 (1940); Scarborough v. Payne, 198 S.W.2d 917, 919 (Tex.Civ.App.— San Antonio 1947, writ ref’d); Houston-American Life Insurance Co. v. Tate, 358 S.W.2d 645 (Tex.Civ.App. — Waco 1962, no writ). In my view, the holding of the majority usurps the function of the legislature by the judiciary, and contradicts the basic concepts of our form of government embodied in the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Texas, both of which sharply delineate the functions of the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The function of the legislature is to enunciate the public policy, the duty of the executive to execute that policy, and the duty of the judiciary to construe those statutes passed by the legislature and to determine whether they contravene the constitutions of the State of Texas or of the United States. It is not the function of the judiciary to usurp the legislative function under the guise of public policy. As Mr. Justice Jackson stated in Collins v. Hardyman. 341 U.S. 651, 663, 71 S.Ct. 937, 942, 95 L.Ed.2d 1253 (1951), “It is not for this Court to compete with Congress or attempt to replace it as the nation’s law-making body.” If, as some think, the landlord-tenant relationship need be changed, the legislature is the place to obtain that change, rather than in the courts.
The judiciary should not act where the legislative branch has apparently chosen' not to do so. The legislature in both 1973 and 1975 revised substantially the landlord-tenant statutes in this state, giving tenants far more rights than they had under prior law. Nevertheless, the legislature apparently chose not to grant tenants a cause of action based on retaliatory eviction. Thus, the majority has chosen to ignore the legislature’s obvious will as well as the historic distinction in the functions of the legislature and the judiciary. It is never the judiciary’s function to declare that public policy it thinks desirable or just; rather it *534is our duty to apply those policies clearly expressed by the legislature through statutes. The majority opinion establishes a dangerously oligarchic precedent.
The opinion of the majority reflects the Platonic view that philosopher kings know that which is best for the people, rather than the people themselves. Hopefully our judiciary is blessed with such philosophers, but I cannot accept this contravention of the traditional functions of the legislature and the judiciary.
The sound logic behind the sharp delineation between the function of the legislature and that of the judiciary is best illustrated by the very question decided by the majority of this court. If a bill granting a tenant a cause of action for retaliatory eviction was introduced into the legislature for consideration, interested people in the State of Texas would have an opportunity to express their wishes to their legislators, who, in turn, could fully debate all aspects of the question. The legislature could then determine by vote whether the proposed bill would become law, thus expressing the public policy. Such an opportunity for input is not afforded the people of this state when the majority of an appellate court, composed of three members, makes the determination of what is in the interest of the public and effectively legislates through judicial decree a remedy for an assumed wrong. In granting a cause of action in tort for retaliatory eviction, the majority of this court has gone further than any court, state or federal.
The public policy apparently relied on by the majority to- justify its novel holding is the particular application of the general policy to encourage, rather than discourage, the reporting of violations of the law to proper authorities. They rely primarily on the Supreme Court’s decision in In Re Quarles, 158 U.S. 532 (1895). I cannot agree that that case is applicable to the facts presented here. Quarles was an original writ of habeas corpus where the relators sought release from prison, having been convicted of conspiracy for injuring and intimidating a person because the victim had reported violations of the internal revenue laws. The actions of relators violated a federal statute prohibiting anyone from conspiring “to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same.” In holding that relators violated this statute, the Court found that the threatened right of the victim was the right of every citizen to assist in prosecuting and in securing punishment of any breach of the peace of the United States. . Quarles is not authority to support the majority’s public policy predicate. In the first place, the right of a citizen in reporting violations of the laws is to secure punishment for a breach of peace. Here, no breach of the peace exists. Second, the actions of the relators in Quarles violated a statute which provided punishment of conspiracies to oppress citizens from reporting violations of federal law; no such statute exists here. Thus, it was from this statute that the court in Quarles found a public policy, whereas here we have no such declaration of public policy by our legislature. Public policy of the state cannot be found in city ordinances. It would be specious to state that the public policy of the City of Dallas is the public policy of the State of Texas. Thus, in the absence of a clear declaration of public policy by the state legislature, I do not regard Quarles as authority to find the public policy to support the majority’s holding.
The majority also states that this public policy has been expressly recognized in Texas in the case of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. v. Sanford, 540 S.W.2d 478 (Tex.Civ. App. — Houston [14th Dist.] 1976, no writ). However, Goodyear Tire, also is distinguishable. In Goodyear Tire, supra, an employee successfully sued to set aside an arbitrator’s award under a union contract affirming the employee’s discharge by the company because the employee had filed criminal assault charges against his supervisor. In affirming the trial court’s judgment vacating the arbitrator’s decision, that coürt held that a labor agreement which provided that *535court action could not be taken until all grievance procedures had been exhausted was inapplicable where the employee had filed both a grievance and criminal assault charges against his supervisor. The rationale of the court was that it would be a violation of public policy to enforce the labor contract in that it would obstruct the enforcement of the laws of the state. Although I agree that this is the law, the case does not apply to our facts. Here the only contract was an oral one providing for a week to week tenancy and there was no prohibition in the contract against reporting housing code violations. Consequently, unless there is a contractual prohibition against reporting of these housing code violations there is no violation of public policy. Additionally, since the allegations here are reported violations of city ordinances, not state statutes, there can be no violation of the public policy of the State of Texas.
The majority apparently rests its holding on the rationale of Edwards v. Habib, 130 U.S.App.D.C. 126, 397 F.2d 687 (1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1016, 89 S.Ct. 618, 21 L.Ed.2d 560 (1969). That case is distinguishable from the case here in that Congress had enacted extensive housing codes for the District of Columbia, thus expressing the public policy of the Congress with respect to the question before that court. In fact, even the quotations from Edwards in the majority opinion establish that statutory construction was a ground for that decision. Id. 130 U.S.App.D.C. 138, 140-141, 397 F.2d 699, 701-702. No such extensive and specific codes have been enacted by our legislature. This distinction is poignantly enunciated by the concurring opinion in Edwards which notes that a Congress which enacts a housing code together with its enforcement cannot be taken to have excluded retaliatory eviction as a defense to a routine statutory eviction statute also promulgated by Congress. Edwards v. Habib, supra, rested its decision on the ground that Congress by enacting the housing code with enforcement provisions implicitly intended to permit retaliatory eviction as a defense to a forcible detainer action to effectuate that legislation.
Nevertheless, I do not agree with the rationale of either the majority opinion or the concurring opinion in that case, instead, I agree with the view, expressed by the dissent, that a specific act of Congress was required to legislate retaliatory eviction as a defense to a forcible detainer action. The dissent also poses the question, unanswered by the majority, that such judicial legislation permits the landlord to be deprived of his property without due process of law. In Edwards, the majority opinion’s basis of divining the congressional intent with respect to enforcement of the housing codes by permitting retaliatory eviction as a defense, is weakened, if not indeed contradicted, by footnote 52 which notes that three bills had been introduced in Congress dealing specifically with retaliatory eviction, but none were reported out of committee. Edwards, 130 U.S.App.D.C. at 141, 397 F.2d at 702. In my view, this shows a congressional intent contrary to that intent derived in the majority’s opinion. Consequently, I do not regard Edwards v. Habib, supra, as persuasive authority to hold that a suit may be maintained in tort for an alleged retaliatory eviction.
The majority opinion observes that the ordinances in question were presumably enacted under the authority of the city’s home rule charter and they specifically point to Article 1175 § 35, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. (Vernon Supp.1978) which gives home rule cities the authority to enact ordinances requiring the demolition or repair of buildings. They state that this shows that the legislature has recognized that the public welfare may require that dwellings offered for rental must be safe and fit for habitation. In my view, reliance on this article is misplaced in that it in no way establishes a particular public policy. Indeed, in no way can it be read as adopting a public policy for the entire state when Article 1175 itself applies only to home rule cities. Is the majority holding that only home rule cities have this policy to encourage the reporting of violations? Even under Article 1175, home rule cities may adopt conflicting ordinances to deal with identical subjects. *536Thus, it is absurd to maintain that diverse local ordinances express a single legislative policy.
In nearly all jurisdictions, where either a cause of action for retaliatory eviction exists or where such may be asserted defensively, a specific statute so stating was enacted by the legislature. Texas has no such statute. Accordingly, in my view, the rights of the parties here are controlled by Article 5236a, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. (Vernon Supp.1978), which is the only provision concerning termination of tenancies in Texas. It provides:
. [W]hen the rent reserved in a lease is payable at periods of less than a month, .the time of the notice of termination is sufficient if it is equal to the interval between the times of payment
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The notice here was timely since it gave Sims ten days when the pay period was weekly. Since the landlord-tenant relationship is one of contract, the tenant may remain in the premises only until such time as the landlord terminates the lease. The landlord’s right to possession is an incident of ownership, while the tenant’s right of possession is dependent upon the agreement with the landlord. Thus, Sims merely had an expectancy that his lease would be extended for only another week. Holcombe v. Lorino, 124 Tex. 446, 79 S.W.2d 307 (1935). To hold, as the majority does, that there is a limitation of the landlord’s right to terminate, not only alters the contract between landlord and tenant, but is also in conflict with this explicit statute. Consequently, I would hold, as did the trial court, that the landlord’s motive in evicting Sims was immaterial.