| Litigants: | Edwards v. Habib |
| Arguedate: | January 22, |
| Argueyear: | 1968 |
| Decidedate: | May 17, |
| Decideyear: | 1968 |
| Fullname: | Yvonne C. Edwards v. Nathan Habib |
| Citations: | 397 F.2d 687 |
| Subsequent: | Petition for rehearing en banc denied, July 11, 1968 |
| Majority: | Wright |
| Joinmajority: | McGowan (Part III only) |
| Concurrence: | McGowan |
| Dissent: | Danaher |
In United States landlord-tenant law, Edwards v. Habib, 397 F.2d 687 (D.C. Cir. 1968),[1] was a case decided by the D.C. Circuit that includes the first recognition of retaliatory eviction as a defense to eviction.
Plaintiff Edwards rented property from defendant Habib on a month-to-month basis. Habib failed to address sanitary code violations brought up by Edwards, so Edwards reported Habib to the Department of Licenses and the Inspection Department. An inspection revealed 40 sanitary code violations, and Habib was ordered to rectify the violations. After the inspection, Habib obtained a default judgment against Edwards in a statutory eviction action.
The court held that a tenant cannot be evicted for reporting sanitary code violations, and this became known as the defense of retaliatory eviction.[2]