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INTERNAL PROTOTYPE — NOT LEGAL ADVICE — DO NOT SEND

Boston Housing Authority v. Hemingway, 293 N.E.2d 831 (1973)

Citation
Boston Housing Authority v. Hemingway, 293 N.E.2d 831 (1973)
Parent Document
Boston Housing Authority v. Hemingway, 293 N.E.2d 831 (1973)
Jurisdiction
Massachusetts (state)
Effective Date
1973-03-05

Other Sections in This Document (181)

Full Text

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Our reexamination leads us to conclude that the exception to the independent covenants rule carved out by the Ingalls case, 156 Mass. 348, supra, in response to what was then an unusual situation, must now become the rule in an urban industrial society where the essen*197tial objective of the leasing transaction is to provide a dwelling suitable for habitation. The old common law treatment of the lease as a property conveyance and the independent covenants rule which stems from this treatment have outlived their usefulness. The urban tenant in a multiple dwelling unit cares little about the property interest he has acquired. Modern tenants, rightfully expect that the premises they rent, whether furnished or unfurnished, will be suitable for occupation. In Javins v. First Natl. Realty Corp. 428 F. 2d 1071 (D. C. Cir. 1970), the court justified in part its decision that all leases for dwellings imply a warranty of habitability11 by demonstrating how the factual assumptions underlying the Ingalls case exception to the independent covenants rule were in closer harmony to modern housing patterns than the old common law assumption that a property conveyance was the essential objective of the transaction.