In United States landlord-tenant law, Edwards v. Habib, 397 F.2d 687 (D.C. Cir.
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.
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.