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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[3] The court's analogy to the rule of lenity used in criminal cases, relying on Callanan v. United States, 364 U.S. 587, 596, 81 S.Ct. 321, 5 L.Ed.2d 312 (1961), is not apt in this context. The rule of lenity is a judicial construct, "in favorem libertatis, to resolve the ambiguity," id. at 596, 81 S.Ct. 321, in those cases "[w]hen Congress leaves to the Judiciary the task of imputing to Congress an undeclared will...." Id. at 596 n. 9, 81 S.Ct. 321 (quoting Bell v. United States, 349 U.S. 81, 83, 75 S.Ct. 620, 99 L.Ed. 905 (1955)). But here, the legislature has not left its will "undeclared"; to the contrary, it has expressly declared in the statute itself that any ambiguity is to be resolved in favor of strengthening tenants' rights. The more apt reference is to D.C.Code § 23-112, which provides a legislatively-mandated rule of interpretation (in favor of consecutive sentences) when a sentencing court does not "expressly provide[] otherwise."

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