Dysert v. Ring Management Co.

69 A.2d 655, 1949 D.C. App. LEXIS 257
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 29, 1949
DocketNo. 820
StatusPublished

This text of 69 A.2d 655 (Dysert v. Ring Management Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dysert v. Ring Management Co., 69 A.2d 655, 1949 D.C. App. LEXIS 257 (D.C. 1949).

Opinions

CLAGETT, Associate Judge.

This is a petition by 17 tenants of the Carlyn Apartments to review an order of the Rent Administrator increasing rents on the basis of a substantial rise in taxes and [656]*656other operating costs or expenses between the fiscal years ended June 30, 1943, and 1947.

In certain aspects the present appeal is a renewal or continuation of a previous appeal entitled Beulah M. Hall et al. v. Ring Management Co., decided by us December 28, 1948.1 That appeal was brought by some 116 tenants occupying certain of the 270 apartment units in the building. In our previous opinion we approved some of the findings of the rent examiner and the Administrator, but as to the principal conclusion that the rents should be,increased by approximately 6.94% we reversed. After a further hearing before a rent examiner, the Rent Administrator on April 27, 1949, made new findings of fact and issued a new order. It is this last order-which is now under attack.

During the pendency of the present appeal, it was disclosed that the number of tenants appealing had been reduced from 116 to 17 and that the remainder had either affirmatively acquiesced in the order of the Administrator or did not desire to participate in this petition for review. Included among the tenants not involved in the present proceeding is Beulah M. Hall, in whose name the previous appeal Was prosecuted.Over the protest of respondent, we allowed the appeal to proceed in the name of A. S. Dysert and 16 other tenants whose names appear in the margin.2

In its original application to the Rent Administration respondent claimed that operating expenses, including real estate taxes and water rent, had increased $21,711.99 during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1947, as compared with the fiscal year ended June 30, 1943, and on the basis of such increases asked that apartment rentals be increased 7i/2%. In the prior proceedings the Rent Administrator adopted in general the basis proposed by respondent. That was the fundamental ground upon which we reversed. In other cases decided by us at about the same time, the Administrator had averaged all expenses for the years after the base year except taxes and water rents, and compared such averaged figures with those for the base year. We held no reasonable explanation had been made for the use of such conflicting methods in different cases. In the present case the Administrator 'himself has made detailed findings of fact. He has listed certain expense items such as repairs as to which he found that the figures for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1947, were not representative and that for such items a more accurate picture would be obtained 'by taking an average for the fiscal years ended June 30, 1944, 1945, 1946, and 1947 and comparing them with the same expense items for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1943. As to the remaining items, the Administrator found that an accurate picture could be obtained by comparing the first and last fiscal years. Based upon the combination of these two sets of figures, the Administrator concluded that operating and maintenance costs and expenses, including taxes and water rents, had increased $19,153.32. He therefore ordered an increase of 6.6% in the apartment rentals which he found to be $289,4Í0 per annum. He applied this percentage to each apartment rent with adjustments upward or downward to the nearest quarter of a dollar.

One of the principal assignments of error made by petitioners is that the Administrator used as a basis for his calculations operating expenses for the fiscal years beginning July 1, 1942, and ended June 30, 1947. Petitioners urge that figures for the calendar years beginning January 1, 1942, and ending December 31, 1946, should have been used and have made an analysis of figures upon that basis.3 We [657]*657believe the Administrator was well within the discretionary power entrusted to him by the Rent Act in using the fiscal year basis in the present case. Several obvious facts dictated this choice. In the first place the Carlyn was opened as a new apartment house on February 1, 1942, and the first rent schedules were not filed until May 15, 1942. Hence there were no operating expense figures for the full Calendar year beginning January 1, 1942. Furthermore, the original petition for rent adjustments was filed September 12, 1947. Therefore, the fiscal year basis was used so that figures could be brought as nearly as practicable up to the date of the application. Again, petitioners in the figures used by them included for 1942 such items as one for pre-opening expenses of $2,697.96, which did not recur in later years, and therefore was not an ordinary expense and furnished no basis for comparison. We conclude that the use of the fiscal year basis in this case was entirely appropriate and proper.

Petitioners next attack the finding of the Administrator that operating and maintenance costs and expenses had increased $19,153.32 on the ground that in its original petition respondent had shown an increase amounting to only $17,080.57. This assignment of error is based upon a misconception. The figure in the original petition cited by petitioners was for the increase in operating expenses without real estate taxes and water rent. Including these two items, the original petition showed total increases of $21,711.99. This latter figure is the one to be compared with $19,153.32 as found by the Administrator since he included real estate taxes and water rent in his total.

Petitioners also complain that the Administrator used total rentals of $289,-410, compared with increased expenses of $19,153.32, in order to arrive at the percentage increase determined by him. This complaint is based upon the fact that the original petition showed annual rental income of $287,670. Although the larger figure used by the Administrator apparently is based upon rents for certain apartments not included -in the original petition, we have made no detailed check of this item for the obvious reason that the mistake, if any, works to the advantage of the tenants and the landlord has not complained. $19,153 divided by $287,670 gives a larger figure than $19,153 divided by $289,410, and thus if the Administrator had used the figures suggested by petitioners a greater rent increase would have resulted to their detriment.

Further assignments of error are that the basis of calculation, or formula adopted by the Administrator, is not in accordance with our previous decision in this case and with our opinions in other cases, and that the Administrator’s findings are not sufficiently detailed and specific. We must reject both contentions. It would be helpful both to litigants and to this court if the record in such cases contained the actual figures used by the examiner or the Administrator. Nevertheless, in the present case the Administrator by reference in his findings to page numbers of the record has made such figures easily ascertainable.4 We have held recently that this is sufficient.5 So far as the formula used by the Administrator is concerned, petitioners have demonstrated no fundamental error, and it is in accord with principles stated previously by this court.6

One contention of petitioners seems on its face to have more merit. Included in the comparative figures for the fiscal years ended June 30, 1943, and June 30, 1947, are items for elevator operators’ salaries.

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Stokes v. Realest Corp.
60 A.2d 532 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1948)
Hall v. Ring Management Co.
63 A.2d 656 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1948)
Shapiro v. Bombardier
63 A.2d 772 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1949)
Ostrow v. Horning, Inc.
69 A.2d 277 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1949)
International Exch. Bank v. Pullo
285 F. 933 (D.C. Circuit, 1922)
In re Taylor
285 F. 983 (D.C. Circuit, 1923)

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Bluebook (online)
69 A.2d 655, 1949 D.C. App. LEXIS 257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dysert-v-ring-management-co-dc-1949.