Desio v. Hutchinson
Desio v. Hutchinson
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
1. Several assignments of error raise the question of the sufficiency of the affidavit to confer jurisdiction, under the statute, upon the municipal court, and of the admissibility of plaintiff’s evidence of title thereunder.
It is not necessary to consider these, as counsel for the ap
2. The bond was given, and the judgment rendered under the provisions of sec. 1233, Code [31 Stat. at L. 1383, chap. 854], which reads as follows: “In case of an appeal by the defendant, his undertaking, in order to operate as a supersedeas, shall be an undertaking to abide by and pay the judgment rendered by the justice of the peace, if it shall be affirmed, together with the costs of the appeal, and to pay all intervening damages to the leased property, and compensation for the use and occupation thereof, from the date of the judgment appealed from to the date of its affirmance; and in said undertaking the said defendant and his sureties, the latter submitting themselves to the jurisdiction of the court, shall agree that if the judgment be affirmed, judgment may be rendered against them by the appellate court for the amount of the judgment so affirmed, and the intervening damages, compensation, and costs aforesaid.”
There was no evidence of any damage done to the leased part of the premises, and the recovery on their account was limited to the value of the use and occupation thereof from the date of the judgment in the municipal court to the date of its affirmance by the supreme court of the District, to which it was appealed.
The question that we have to determine is not whether the plaintiff would have a right of action for the loss of rental of the entire building, occasioned by the defendant’s unlawful detention of the part leased to and occupied by him, but whether it may be recovered of the defendant and his sureties in this special statutory proceeding.
Without intending to intimate that he may or may not be entitled to an action at common law for such special dam
The leased property comprised a part only of the building. The upper stories or rooms were not leased to defendant, but had been, during his lease of the ground floor and basement, leased to and occupied by others, though vacant before the expiration of his lease. He never took possession of them, and therefore could not detain them from the possession of the owner.
It was error to permit the jury to find a verdict for the damages sustained by reason of the loss of the opportunity to lease the remaining floors of the building. The judgment will therefore be modified and affirmed as to the verdict for the value of the use and occupation of the leased property,-and as to the costs of appeal and' of the court below, and reversed as to the remaining damages found by the jury.
The appellants and the appellee, respectively, will be adjudged to pay one half of the costs incurred on this appeal. The cause will be remanded, with direction to modify the judgment as ' indicated in this opinion, without prejudice to the right of the appellee to prosecute any action at common law to recover the special damages aforesaid, if he be so advised.
Modified.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- DESIO v. HUTCHINSON
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Landlord and Tenant; Damages; Costs on Appeal. 1. Under D. C. Code, see. 1233 (31 Stat. at L. 1383, chap. 854), providing that in ease of an appeal by a tenant from a judgment for possession in favor of the landlord, the defendant shall give an undertaking with sureties to pay, if the judgment shall be affirmed, “all intervening damages to the leased property and compensation for the use and occupation thereof,” for which judgment may be rendered by the appellate court, if the leased property consists of one story and the basement of a building, and there is no evidence of damage done to that part of the premises, the judgment of the appellate court must be confined to the value of the’ use and occupation of that part of the premises, and cannot properly include the loss of the rental of the rest of the building, caused the landlord by the unlawful holding over of the tenant. 2. Quasre, whether a tenant leasing the ground floor and basement of a building, and unlawfully holding over after the expiration of his lease, is liable at common law for damages sustained by the landlord on account of loss of rental of the entire building, occasioned by his unlawful detention of the part leased to him. 3. Each party was required to pay one half of the costs of appeal, where the judgment appealed from was entered for the aggregate amount of two separate findings of damages by the jury, and- is modified and affirmed by this court as to one of such findings, and reversed as to the other.