Court Opinion

ID: 9721540
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:02:07.037268+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:27.116131
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON REHEARING
(Jan. 18, 1995)
We issue this opinion on rehearing to address a question raised by Appellee, Scandia Associates, Inc., which has filed a petition for rehearing from this court's opinion of October 12, 1994; whether a professional landlord may expressly disclaim the implied warranty of habitability in a residential lease. In the last sentence of footnote 8 in our opinion, we interpreted the decision in Breezewood Management Co. v. Maltbie (1980), Ind.App., 411 N.E.2d 670, trans. denied, to mean that the parties to a residential lease may "effectively disclaim the implied warranty of habitability...." Johnson v. Scandia Associates, Inc. (1994), Ind.App., 641 N.E.2d 51, 56 n. 3. Scandia has seized upon this language to argue that our opinion should have only prospective application and that it should be able to disclaim the implied warranty of habitability in its future leases.
In Scandia's petition for rehearing, footnote 3 of our opinion has assumed an importance far beyond its significance. By "effectively disclaim," we meant only that under the facts and cireumstances of a particular case, it is conceivable that a warranty of habitability would not be a reasonable expectation of the parties to the lease. In our opinion we decided only whether a tenant could recover damages resulting from personal injury under the implied warranty of habitability in a residential lease. Johnson, 641 N.E.2d at 53. The question was not presented, and we did not decide in a footnote, whether the implied warranty of habitability can be expressly disclaimed in a residential lease.
Accordingly, in order to avoid an extension of our holding beyond its reach, we have withdrawn the last sentence of footnote 8 in the opinion, which shall now read as follows:
[Editor's Note: Modification to footnote incorporated for purposes of publication.]
We affirm this court's commitment in Breezewood Management to "support the reasonable expectations of the contracting parties whenever possible." Breezewood Management, 411 N.E.2d at 675 n. 2. We agree that "[olne who, 'with open eyes, rents a hovel cannot later expect and sue for the Waldorf Astoria." Id.
In all other respects the petition for rehearing is denied.