Boston Housing Authority v. Hemingway

The Boston Housing Authority (landlord) brought two actions of summary process against the defendants (tenants)1 for failure to pay rent. The tenants contend that they were entitled to withhold rent under G. L. c. 239, § 8A, because their apartments were in uninhabitable condition2 in violation oi the State Sanitary Code. The tenants argue in the alternative that the landlord’s breach of an implied warranty that the demised premises were suitable for human occupation extinguished the tenants’ rental obligations. The *186cases were originally entered and tried in the Municipal Court of the Roxbury…