Court Opinion

ID: 9651538
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:24:58.294025+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:35.200355
License: Public Domain

GALLAGHER, Associate Judge
(concurring) .
As I see it, appellants’ principal contention is that the statutory scheme, D.C.Code 1967, §§ 45-901 through 908, creates a tenant’s right to 30 days’ notice to quit prior to the institution of proceedings for possession by his landlord, though concededly Section 45-908 authorizes an agreement between the parties to shorten the notice period or to waive it altogether. Appellants urge with considerable force that once the parties fail to agree on a waiver of the 30-day notice to quit requirement, all that remains of the statutory scheme is the tenant's right to such notice, which is grounded in public policy.
From these premises appellants argue that the notices to quit in this case are invalid, as they seek to punish the tenants for insisting on their statutory rights to 30 days’ notice.1 By way of analogy appellants cite, inter alia, Edwards v. Habib, 130 U.S.App.D.C. 126, 397 F.2d 687 (1968) (retaliatory evictions for reporting housing code violations); and United States v. Beaty, 288 F.2d 653 (6th Cir.1961) (eviction to deter tenant from exercising the right to vote). The distinguishing feature in those cases, however, is that the landlord was basing his attempted evictions on his own illegal purpose. See Edwards, supra 130 U.S.App.D.C. at 139-141, 397 F.2d at 700-701; Beaty, supra 288 F.2d at 656. There is no such illegal conduct here.
Affirmance of these evictions does not work to endorse an illegal waiver. This case is unlike Wirtz v. Leonard, 317 F.2d 768 (5th Cir. 1963), suggested by appellants to stand for the premise that the courts will not enforce an employment contract for wages below the statutory minimum. There the court recognized the rule that the parties to an employment contract may not agree to waive the working condition or minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Waiver of the 30-day notice to quit is, on the other hand, statutorily authorized, D.C.Code 1967, § 45-908, and a lease containing a waiver of the 30-day notice to quit requirement would be enforceable. H. L. Rust Co. v. Drury, 62 App.D.C. 329, 68 F.2d 167 (1933). If this statutory authorization were absent the result, for me, would be to favor a reversal of the judgment.
From this I would conclude that this new landlord could obtain possession upon the termination of the 30 days’ notice he gave to these tenants.

. In view of the stipulation in this case, this is the sole question presented.