Dickhut v. Norton

The issue is whether a tenant, in an unlawful detainer action, can assert as a valid defense an allegation that the landlord’s attempt to terminate the tenancy and evict the tenant was motivated as retaliation for the tenant’s complaint to the health authorities of a housing code sanitary violation.

The defendant contends that he has a federally guaranteed constitutional right to make such complaints and that for a state to permit such retaliation violates or abridges his constitutional rights. He further contends that public policy of this state as expressed or derived from housing laws,…