Adjartey v. Cent. Div. of the Hous. Court Departmentand, 120 N.E.3d 297 (2019)

Citation: Adjartey v. Cent. Div. of the Hous. Court Departmentand, 120 N.E.3d 297 (2019)
Parent Document: Adjartey v. Cent. Div. of the Hous. Court Departmentand, 120 N.E.3d 297 (2019)
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts (state)
Effective Date: 2019-04-10
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/7178223/adjartey-v-cent-div-of-the-hous... ↗

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Although a tenant's time to respond to his or her landlord's complaint is sharply limited, the tenant must generally assert any affirmative defenses and counterclaims in the answer. See Rule 3 of the Uniform Summary Process Rules ("defendant shall ... state in the answer any affirmative defenses which may be asserted"); Aronovitz v. Fafard, 78 Mass. App. Ct. 1, 8, 934 N.E.2d 851 (2010) ("Affirmative defenses are waived when they are not raised in the first responsive pleading"); Rule 5 of the Uniform Summary Process Rules (1980) ("right to counterclaim shall be deemed to be waived as to the pending action if such a claim is not filed with the answer ... , unless the court shall otherwise order on motion for cause shown"). An unrepresented tenant is therefore expected, within a matter of weeks, to understand and set forth his or her legal rights, or risk waiving them.

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