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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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The opinion of the court also cites and quotes from the decisions in Pines v. Perssion, 14 Wis. 2d 590, and Kline v. Burns, 111 N. H. 87. Although the court in each of these cases said it was implying a warranty of habitability of the dwelling unit in question, it should be noted that in each case the facts held to constitute a breach of the warranty consisted of violations of the building or housing codes. The relationship between the court’s decision in the Pines case and legislative and administrative housing standards is obvious from the following language at pp. 595-596 of the decision: “Legislation and administrative rules, such as the safe-place statute, *218building codes, and health regulations, all impose certain duties on a property owner with respect to the condition of his premises. Thus, the legislature has made a policy judgment — that it is socially (and politically) desirable to impose these duties on a property owner — which has rendered the old common-law rule obsolete. To follow the old rule of no implied warranty of habitability in leases would, in our opinion, be inconsistent with the current legislative policy concerning housing standards.” For other cases to the same effect, see Marini v. Ireland, 56 N. J. 130, and Lund v. MacArthur, 51 Hawaii 473. All four of these cases could have been decided in favor of the tenants on the basis of the landlord’s violation of applicable building or housing codes, as could the cases now before us, without imposing a broader warranty. See Schoshinski, Remedies of the Indigent Tenant: Proposal for Change, 54 Georgetown L. J. 519, 523, for discussion of “Implied Warranty of Habitability Based on Housing Regulations.”