This is before us on a petition and rule to show cause why an appeal from a magistrate’s judgment in an eviction proceeding should not be quashed. To the petition, defendant filed an answer; subsequently plaintiff filed an amended petition, defendant an amended answer; plaintiff has also submitted depositions in support of the averments contained in his petition.
Defendant-appellant is the tenant in possession, and plaintiff-petitioner the owner, of the premises 455 West Roosevelt Boulevard, Philadelphia. On September 13, 1946, the magistrate rendered a judgment in favor of plaintiff and against defendants for possession of the premises. It is from this judgment that defendant appeals. The transcript of the proceedings below discloses that: (1) Plaintiff leased the premises to defendants on June 1, 1946, for one month at the monthly rental of $40; (2) notice to vacate the premises at the expiration of the term was given to defendants on March 27, 1946; (3) a lease was “presented in evidence waiving all rights of Appeal. Lease signed May 1, 1934”. A copy of this 1934 lease was attached to plaintiff’s amended petition. It is a lease for one year from May 1, 1934, and, unless written notice of intention to terminate is given by either
Plaintiff alleges the waiver clause in the 1934 lease as a bar to this appeal. But the action below was not brought on the 1934 lease, and the fact that it was presented in evidence does not mean, in the absence of other proof, that its provisions were incorporated in the 1946 lease, or that the 1946 lease had the same provisions. The two leases differ in all material respects; the one on which action was brought is dated June 1, 1946 (not April 27, 1934, or May 1, 1934), for one month (not for a year and then month to month), at a monthly rental of $40 (not $33), between plaintiff as lessor and defendants as lessees (not between Schumacher and defendants). And there is no evidence, either in the magistrate’s record, the petition, or the depositions that the 1946 lease contained a waiver clause. Accordingly, we must dismiss the petition.
In passing, it might be well to mention that the same result would have been reached if the lease did contain a waiver clause. Such clauses have appeared in Pennsylvania litigation for over a hundred years: Pritchard v. Denton, 8 Watts 371 (1839). An individual may waive any right he desires: McCahan v. Reamey, 33 Pa. 535 (1859); Lippincott v. Cooper, 19 W. N. C. 130 (1886); and if the waiver is supported
In the case before us, there is neither illegality, fraud, nor a denial that the lease was entered into. However, defendants argued that there was no jurisdiction in the magistrate’s court to hear the matter. The summary remedy given by the Landlord and Tenant Act of December 14, 1863, P. L. (1864) 1125, and its supplements is in derogation of the common law, and the necessary jurisdiction must appear affirmatively on the face of the record: Davis v. Davis, 115 Pa. 261, 264 (1887). The magistrate’s record must show the existence of the facts upon which his jurisdiction depends: Mikulski v. Ziolkowski et ux., 73 Pa. Superior Ct. 72 (1919). One of these facts is the giving of notice. According to the record below a notice was given on March 27, 1946. This notice cannot affect a lease which subsequently came into existence, on June 1, 1946, and amounts to no notice at all. Therefore, the court had no jurisdiction, and a waiver clause, if there were one, would not bar an appeal.
Defendants had other arguments which were not accepted by the court, but are worth mentioning. They claim that complicated questions of law are involved in this case, and that therefore, the magistrate had no
Defendants claim additional complicated questions of law concerning the failure of plaintiff to comply with certain O. P. A. regulations. On this point, however, we are bound by the decision of our Superior Court in Hangelias v. Dawson et al., 158 Pa. Superior Ct. 370 (1946). That case decided that the entry by confession of a judgment in ejectment is a step preliminary to eviction or removal of the tenant, and that the action to evict or remove does not commence until the writ of habere facias possessionem is issued. The same distinction must be made between the judgment of a magistrate, and execution thereunder by the constable. We are not concerned with the O. P. A. regulations until we start to evict or remove the tenant.
