Porter v. Arnold

63 Pa. D. & C. 109, 1948 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 335
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County
DecidedMarch 22, 1948
Docketno. 784
StatusPublished

This text of 63 Pa. D. & C. 109 (Porter v. Arnold) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Porter v. Arnold, 63 Pa. D. & C. 109, 1948 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 335 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1948).

Opinion

Sweney, J.,

This ease comes before us upon defendants’ preliminary objections to plaintiff’s complaint in an action of assumpsit to recover treble damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, pursuant to the provisions of the Emergency Price Control Act of January 30, 1942, 56 Stat. at L. 23, as amended, and the Housing and Rent Act of June 30, 1947, 61 Stat. at L. 193.

Defendants’ first objection is that plaintiff “fails to aver in concise and summary form all of the material terms of the oral lease in accordance with Pa. R. C. P. 1019(a).” We think the complaint substantially complies with the rule, and that the objection must be overruled.

The complaint avers that defendants are the owners in fee of a certain apartment house located at No. 2528 West Third Street, in the City of Chester, this county; that on or about February 10, 1947, plaintiff and defendants entered into an oral week-to-week lease agreement, the terms of which were that defendants were to lease and plaintiff to rent the apartment on the third floor of the said apartment house; and that in pursuance to the lease agreement, plaintiff moved into the said apartment and continued living there until August 29, 1947. Further averments are that defendants demanded and received and plaintiff paid to defendants rentals for the apartment in the sum of $15 per week for the period February 10, 1947, to July 7, 1947, and in the sum of $20 per week for the period July 7,1947, to August 29,1947; that during the period covered by the oral lease agreement, defendants’ premises were situated in the Philadelphia defense rental area and subject to the regulations of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942; and that the maximum rent for the apartment occupied by plaintiff, according to the registration certificate in the Office of Price Administration, was $20 per month, “and that the said [111]*111maximum rent applied during the period of time when plaintiff occupied the apartment.”

Defendants do not contend that the facts are not stated in a “concise and summary form”. They assert, rather, that the complaint does not state all of the “material facts.” They say: “The type of utilities and other services offered by landlord to tenant, the absence or presence of a central heating unit, and the absence or presence of furniture and other similar provisions are clearly material to the case at bar in view of such registration.” If these matters are material, we think it is defendants’ duty to plead them, and to prove them if the case comes to trial. On its face, the complaint sets forth what would appear to be all of the material facts in a case of this character. We may not assume the existence of additional material facts. Nor may defendants, at this stage of the case, assert that there are additional material facts, and then move to strike off the complaint for failure to aver such facts. A motion to strike off or a demurrer can be employed only where there is a defect apparent on the record: City of York v. Miller, 254 Pa. 436. A statement can only be stricken off for some imperfections appearing on its face, and not for facts which must be elucidated by evidence: Standard Engineering and Lubricating Co. v. Hoenninger, 39 Lane. 363.

“The rule that pleadings should state all facts pertinent and material is a rule of substance as well as of form, and as such is enforced as well by the Codes as by the common law; no lawyer should bring a suit until he has first determined in his own mind the essential facts upon which the case must turn”: 3 Standard Pa. Practice 122.

In the absence of anything on the face of the complaint which would lead to a contrary conclusion, we must assume that the complaint contains a statement of all the material facts in the ease. The requirements of a sufficient statement of claim have been stated on [112]*112numerous occasions, and we believe that what has been said in this behalf applies equally under the present Procedural Rules.

“The statement of claim must be self-sustaining. It must set forth facts sufficient to establish a legal cause of action, that is to say, it must set forth every ingredient necessary to a good and complete cause of action, by averring all facts or matters of substance essential thereto which, if not controverted, would entitle the plaintiff to a verdict for the amount of his claim”: 3 Standard Pa. Practice, 123. The complaint before us meets this test..

Defendants cite the case of MacDowell v. Milbourn, 34 Del. Co. 109, in which this court, in an opinion by our present president judge, held insufficient plaintiff’s declaration of ejectment. The case is not in point, as will be seen by a reading of the second paragraph of the opinion (p. 110) :

“The first reason is that the declaration as filed refers to an oral lease but does not state sufficient particulars to permit the defendant to know its terms. The plaintiffs’ declaration merely states that the defendant is in possession under a verbal lease from the plaintiffs as a tenant at will or by sufferance.”

As the opinion points out, the statements in the declaration were nothing but conclusions of law. Furthermore, the legal conclusions were directly and mutually contradictory. It is impossible to imagine two things more mutually exclusive, each of the other, than a tenancy at will and a tenancy by sufferance. The fact is, as Coke says, “There is a great diversity between a tenant at will and a tenant at sufferance; . . .” in that one holds rightfully and the other wrongfully: Coke on Littleton 57 b.

The next ground of objection is that plaintiff fails to aver such facts as would support an action in assumpsit. Here, we think, defendants are on more solid ground. So far as our researches have disclosed, [113]*113the Supreme Court of the United States has not passed upon the precise nature of the recovery permitted under section 205(e) of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942. In the recent case of Testa et al. v. Katt, 330 U. S. 386, 67 S. Ct. 810, that court found it unnecessary to decide the point. However, in Porter v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U. S. 395, 66 S. Ct. 1086, the court said (66 S. Ct. 1091) :

“It (Section 205 (e) of the Act) establishes the sole means whereby individuals may assert their private right to damages and whereby the Administrator on behalf of the United States may seek damages in the nature of penalties.”

In the decisions of the lower Federal courts and the State courts, there exists the greatest diversity of opinion as to whether section 205 (e) is penal in nature, or remedial. Probably the truth is that it is both. “We are to remember that the same provision may be penal as to the offender and remedial as to the sufferer, (citing cases)”: Cardozo, J., in Cox v. Lykes Brothers, 237 N. Y. 376, 380, 143 N. E. 226, 227. It was so held in at least one State court: Geisinger v. Milner Hotels, Inc., 202 S. W. (2d) (Missouri) 142, 147.

Plaintiff’s counsel brought the action in assumpsit, in reliance upon the decision in Pratt v. Hollenbeck, 46 D. & C. 657.

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Bluebook (online)
63 Pa. D. & C. 109, 1948 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/porter-v-arnold-pactcompldelawa-1948.