## Facts

- A landlord leased Boston premises to a tenant; the area at issue was covered by a shed used to store wagons.
- The landlord sued the tenant for unpaid rent and for breach of a covenant to repair; the tenant asserted eviction as a defense.
- After the lease began, a permanent brick wall for a building on adjoining land was erected with the landlord’s assent and with knowledge that it encroached onto the leased premises.
- The wall encroached along the back of the shed for approximately thirty-four feet, by at least several inches (with conflicting testimony as to the exact extent).
- After the encroachment, the tenant stopped paying rent and treated the intrusion as an eviction from part of the premises.

## Issues

1. Whether a landlord’s knowing, wrongful physical encroachment on part of leased premises constitutes an eviction from part that suspends the tenant’s obligation to pay rent.
2. Whether rent suspension for wrongful partial eviction depends on a finding that the premises became uninhabitable or that beneficial enjoyment was materially impaired.
3. Whether a wrongful partial eviction automatically terminates the lease and extinguishes the tenant’s other lease obligations, including a covenant to repair.

## Decision

- The court held that a landlord’s wrongful eviction of the tenant from any part of the demised premises suspends rent under the lease.
- The court rejected conditioning rent suspension on whether the encroachment made the premises uninhabitable or materially changed their character or beneficial enjoyment.
- The court ruled that wrongful partial eviction suspends rent but does not necessarily end the lease or discharge other tenant obligations such as a covenant to repair.
- The court concluded the trial judge erred by instructing that the encroachment “determined” the lease rather than suspending rent while leaving other lease obligations potentially in force.

## Legal Principles

- A landlord’s wrongful actual partial eviction suspends the tenant’s obligation to pay rent in full.
- Rent is not apportioned when the landlord wrongfully deprives the tenant of part of the leased premises; enjoyment of the whole consideration is treated as a condition of the rent covenant.
- The rent-suspension rule for actual partial eviction does not require the level of interference associated with constructive eviction.
- Suspension of rent due to partial eviction does not, by itself, terminate the lease or nullify other independent tenant covenants, including a covenant to repair.

## Conclusion

A landlord’s knowing physical encroachment on any portion of leased premises is a wrongful partial eviction that suspends all rent without requiring proof of uninhabitability or material impairment, but it does not automatically terminate the lease or discharge other tenant obligations such as a covenant to repair.


Smith v. McEnany, 170 Mass. 26, 48 N.E. 781 (Mass. 1897)