47 A.2d 871 | D.C. | 1946
This was a suit for possession of rooming house property, based on the owner’s claim that he required the premises for his personal use and occupancy as a dwelling, as authorized by the District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act.
It will be seen at once that while this language does not in terms authorize delivery or service of a notice to quit by registered mail, it does not on the other hand prohibit such service, or prescribe what person shall make the service. In construing the Code provision and in applying it to the case before us we must keep clearly in mind that we are not dealing with the service of court process but with the service or delivery of a private, preliminary notice between landlord and tenant.
We are, of course, only repeating the familiar when we say that the object of court process is to notify defendant that he is being sued, to give the court jurisdiction over his person, and to require him to appear and answer at a stated time and place. Such process can only be served as provided by statute or by rules adopted pursuant to statute,
But a notice to quit is not process. It emanates from no court and is not part of any proceeding by which the court obtains jurisdiction over the defendant. It is simply a notice given privately from one party to another, terminating (or attempting to terminate) the landlord-tenant relationship. By itself it can never constitute any sort of adjudication; it is without judicial effect' until it is followed by a court action. Its purpose is to convey the information that the landlord (or the tenant, as the case may be) desires to terminate the tenancy. Though it is a condition precedent to the filing of suit, it is not so in a jurisdictional sense.
Since the delivery “may be made by any person acting for the landlord” and since the statute does not prohibit the employment of registered mail for such purpose, we think it clear that the landlord had a right to select the Post Office Department as his delivering agent. To assure delivery by that agency he employed registered mail, prescribed delivery to addressee only and demanded a return receipt. That the method was effective in this case is best attested by the fact that
Appellant argues that if this service is sustained, other landlords will attempt to serve such notices by ordinary mail, or even by postcard, and that great confusion and uncertainty will result. But we apprehend that landlords would hesitate to resort to such unorthodox methods, because of the practical difficulty of proving delivery and the time thereof. In this case there is no challenge of the service on either of those points.
Appellant next assigns as error the failure of the trial judge to instruct the jury as to who legally constituted plaintiff’s family. But the record does not contain any tendered instruction on the point or indeed any reference as to what the trial judge did or did not tell the jury. We cannot therefore consider this alleged error.
Appellant also questions the sufficiency of the evidence to support plaintiff’s claim that he required the premises for his own use and occupancy. Concerning this contention we need only say, without summarizing the evidence, that it demonstrated that plaintiff brought himself clearly within the provisions of the Rent Act and was entitled to possession.
Affirmed.
Code 1940, §§ 45 — 1601, 45-1605.
The exact date of delivery is not revealed by tbe record, but it is conceded that it was received in ample time to give tenant the full statutory thirty days’ notice.
E. g. Rule 4, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c.
See Code 1940, § 11 — 805, authorizing such service in the Small Claims Branch of the Municipal Court See also Wise v. Herzog, 72 App.D.C. 335, 114 F.2d 486, which treats the subject exhaustively.
Morris v. Breaker, D.C.Mun.App., 38 A.2d 632.
Code 1940, § 45-908; H. L. Rust Co. v. Drury, 62 App.D.C. 329, 68 F.2d 167; Morris v. Breaker, supra.