Section 1639

Citation: Section 1639
Parent Document: Tippett v. Daly, 10 A.3d 1123 (2010)
Jurisdiction: DC (municipal)
Effective Date: 2010-12-30
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2551230/tippett-v-daly/ ↗

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Even though the tenant has not presented direct evidence of when the owner received the notice of intent to purchase, there are inferences a fact-finder could make based on the evidence of record that could well lead to a rejection of the owner's claim that he did not receive the tenant's notice until two days after the thirty-day period had expired. First, it is undisputed that the owner's offer of sale to the tenant was mailed on April 28, 2001; the tenant testified that he received it two days later, on April 30. Second, it is also undisputed that the tenant responded by mailing his notice of intent to purchase on May 18, 2001, by certified mail, well within the thirty-day period. Third, the owner says that he did not receive the tenant's letter until two weeks later, on June 2. That is a disputed fact. Two weeks is a long time for a letter to be delivered from an address within the District of Columbia to an address in adjoining suburban Maryland, particularly when a letter going between the same two addresses at approximately the same time is delivered within two days, not two weeks. There is other *1140 evidence in the record that could make a fact-finder question the owner's claimed date of receipt. Even though the owner sent an offer of sale to the tenant, the owner has made it perfectly clear to the trial court that he did not wish to sell the house to the tenant, but wanted to move in while he renovated the house where he lived in Bethesda, Maryland. The owner also had taken the position that, as a matter of law, the property was not subject to TOPA's tenant right of purchase because, even though the owner of the property is a trust, its sole beneficiary wished to occupy the property himself and TOPA does not give the tenant a right to purchase when the tenant is evicted for the owner's personal use of the property. The unresolved factual dispute as to the two-week delayed delivery date when the owner claimed receipt of the tenant's notice, when considered in the context of a tenant who has exhibited a genuine and promptly-expressed desire to purchase his home of thirty-plus years and an owner who does not hide the fact that he does not wish to sell to the tenant, makes it particularly inappropriate for the appellate court to conclusively decide the rights of the parties without a remand for further proceedings and fact-findings in the trial court.

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