Feeley

In this action the Housing Expediter sought (a) an injunction restraining appellant from renting or offering for rent any of the accommodations in what the Expediter claimed to be a controlled multiple unit housing accommodation in Seattle, Washington, and (b) an order directing appellant to restore the sum of $4056.08 to certain named tenants by way of restitution this being the aggregate of certain specified sums claimed to have been collected as rentals from these tenants during the period from about September 1, 1948 to about January 17, 1949. These sums were claimed to be in excess of the maximum rentals as the same were established pursuant to the provisions of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947 as amended in 1948, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, §§ 1881-1906, referred to herein as the Act, and the action was brought under authority of Section 206(b) of the Act for violation of Section 206(a) of the Act.

On or about June 5, 1948 appellant purchased the Seattle structure here involved. For a long time prior thereto it had been operated as a low class apartment house accommodation containing 17 unfurnished apartment “units.” The building was in an unsafe condition and was threatened with…