265 F. 432 | D.D.C. | 1919
Lead Opinion
Appeal from a judgment in the Supreme Court of the District for the plaintiff, appellee here, under law rule 19 of that court, in a landlord and tenant proceeding instituted in the municipal court..
Appellee contends that the “joint resolution to prevent rent profiteering in the District of Columbia,” commonly known as the Saulsbury Resolution (40 Stat. 593), and invoked by the appellant, is unconstitutional, and hence that it is immaterial whether or not he necessarily required the premises for his own occupancy. In the preamble to the resolution it is declared—
“essential to tlie national security and defense, and for the successful prosecution of the war, to establish governmental control and assure adequate regulation of real estate in the District of Columbia.”
It is .provided in the resolution that until a treaty of peace shall have been definitely concluded between the United States and Germany—
“no judicial order, decree, or judgment for the recovery of possession of any real estalq in the District of Columbia, now or hereafter held or acquired by oral or written agreement of lease for one month or any longer period, or for the ejectment or dispossession of a tenant therefrom, shall bo made,” and that “all leases thereof shall continue so long as the tenant continues to pay rent at the agreed rate and performs ihe other conditions of the tenancy which are not inconsistent herewith, unless the tenant has committed waste, or has been guilty on ihe premises of conduct which constitutes a nuisance or a breach of the peace, or other misdemeanor or crime, or that the premises are necessarily required by a landlord or bona fide purchaser for occupation, either by himself or his wife, children, or dependents while he is in the employ of or officially connected with any branch of the government, or where the property has been sold to a bona fide purchaser for his own occupancy.”
The resolution further provides that where an order, decree, or judgment has been made, but not executed, before the passage of the resolution, and the court is of opinion that it would not have been made had the resolution been in force, it shall be rescinded or modified “in such manner as the court may deem proper for the purpose of giving effect” to the resolution. The resolution also provides that-—
“all remedies, at law or in equity, of the lessor based on any provision in any oral or written agreement of lease that the same shall be determined or forfeited if the premises shall be sold are hereby suspended while this resolution shall he in force, and every purchaser shall take the conveyance of any premises subject to the rights of all tenants in possession thereof under the provisions of this resolution; that the term ‘real estate’ as herein used shall be construed to include any and all land, any building, any part of any building, house, or dwelling, any apartment, room, suite of rooms and every other improvement or structure whatsoever on land situated and being in the District of Columbia.”
“We think it is sufficient answer to this objection, to say that the United States do not, by this inquisition, or by the charter to the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company, claim any right of property in the soil. They only claim to exercise the power which belongs to every sovereign to appropriate", upon just compensation, private property, to the making of a highway, wherever the public good requires it.”
“There is nothing in the history of the Constitution or of the original amendments to justify the- assertion that the' people of this District may be lawfully deprived of the benefit of any of the constitutional guaranties of life, liberty, and property.”
In Wight v. Davidson, 181 U. S. 371, 384, 21 Sup. Ct. 616, 621 (45 L. Ed. 900), the court, speaking of an act regulating assessments on property in the District of Columbia, said:
“No doubt, in the exercise of such legislative powers, Congress is subject to the provisions of "the Mfth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which provide, among other things, that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”
While courts always are reluctant to declare a law unconstitutional, and particularly when enacted to meet a supposed emergency, we are convinced that any temporary embarrassment resulting from or incident to an adherence to the supreme law of the land is to be preferred to the far reaching effect of a departure therefrom. The safeguards which the Constitution has thrown around the citizen to protect him in his person and property ought to be jealously guarded and observed.
The judgment must be affirmed, with costs.
Affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
Memorandum of Dissent on Overruling Motion for Reargument.
Further study of this important case, involving as it does the validity of an act of Congress, has led me to seriously doubt the soundness of our decision, and therefore I think that a rehearing should be granted that the following points, not referred to in the opinion, should be argued, and the case reconsidered by the court:
1. Is the statement of the Congress in the preamble to the Saulsbury Resolution that “it is essential to the national security and defense, and for the successful prosecution of the war, to establish governmental control and assure adequate regulation of real estate in the District of Columbia,” binding upon the court as a finding of fact, in the absence of anything to show that it is not true ?
2. If binding upon the court, does it establish that real estate in the District of Columbia during the period of the war is affected with a public interest, and therefore subject to the regulatory power of Congress ?
3. If subject to that power, can it be said that the owner of the real estate in the case before us is deprived of his property by the resolution without due process of law, under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, if the rent which it permits him to receive constitutes a reasonable return for the use of his property?
4. Since the amount which the owner is permitted to receive was agreed upon between him and the tenant before the, .passage of the resolution, must we not assume, in the absence of anything to the contrary, that it affords the owner a reasonable return?
5. Does the fact that the resolution may permit others to receive a greater return for the use of their property than is permitted to the owner in the case at bar affect in any wise the constitutionality of the act, if the owner is permitted a reasonable return?
Finally, is there any provision of the Constitution which prohibits Congress from passing an act which discriminates between landowners, if to each the act permits at least a reasonable return?