## Facts

- Southall Realty Co., acting as agent for the property owner, leased residential premises to tenant Lillie Brown.
- Prior to execution of the lease, the D.C. Housing Division inspected the premises and identified housing code violations, including an obstructed commode, a broken railing, and inadequate basement ceiling height rendering the basement unsuitable for dwelling.
- Evidence showed the violations existed for months before the lease and that the landlord’s side had notice of them.
- The owner previously filed a sworn statement with the Housing Division indicating the basement was unoccupied and would remain vacant until violations were corrected.
- Despite the known violations, the lease was executed without correcting the conditions.
- The landlord’s agent filed an action for possession for nonpayment of rent; the parties stipulated Brown was $230 in arrears.
- Brown asserted no rent was due because the lease was illegal under D.C. Housing Regulations, including a provision barring offering to rent a habitation not in a clean, safe, sanitary, and repaired condition.
- The trial court rejected the illegality defense and awarded possession to the landlord; Brown appealed.
- By the time of appeal, Brown had vacated and did not seek restoration to possession.

## Issues

1. Whether the appeal was moot because the tenant had vacated the premises and did not seek to regain possession.
2. Whether a residential lease executed with the landlord’s knowledge of existing D.C. Housing Regulations violations is an illegal contract that is void and unenforceable, barring a possession action for nonpayment of rent.

## Decision

- The appeal was not moot because the possessory judgment would have res judicata effect on the existence and validity of the lease and on whether rent was due in later litigation.
- The court reversed the judgment for possession.
- A lease executed in knowing violation of the D.C. Housing Regulations was held void as an illegal contract.
- Because the lease was void, the landlord could not rely on it to claim rent due or to obtain possession based on nonpayment of rent.

## Legal Principles

- An illegal contract made in violation of a statutory prohibition enacted for regulatory purposes is void and confers no enforceable rights on the violator.
- Housing regulations prohibiting the offering of unsafe, unsanitary, or unrepaired premises for rent operate as a legal bar to forming an enforceable residential lease where violated at lease inception with the landlord’s knowledge.
- A possessory judgment for nonpayment of rent may be conclusive between the parties as to the lease’s validity and the existence of rent due, supporting review despite the tenant’s vacatur.

## Conclusion

The court held that a residential lease executed with the landlord’s knowledge of housing code violations prohibited by D.C. housing regulations is void as an illegal contract, and the landlord therefore cannot obtain possession for nonpayment of rent under that lease; the possessory judgment was reversed and the appeal was not moot due to res judicata consequences.


Brown v. Southall Realty Co., 237 A.2d 834 (D.C. 1968)