Sheff

The United States sued appellees for restitution of rental overcharges pursuant to Section 205(e) of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, as amended, and for injunction and restitution pursuant to Section 206 of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended. Appellees denied having made any overcharges and alleged by way of affirmative defense that each of the tenants involved had sued them in the Los Angeles Municipal Court for treble.damages on account of the same overcharges alleged here, and that in those actions judgment had gone against the tenants. The record discloses that the Municipal Court actions were dismissed on demurrer as being barred by the one-year statute of limitations applicable to such suits.

The trial court found that appellees had violated the 1942 and 1947 acts by exacting from each of the tenants Rosenberg and Ross a bonus of $500. Despite the finding, the court concluded that the judgments in the Municipal Court in favor of appellees and against these tenants barred and es-topped the United States from obtaining restitution of the same overcharges. A third tenant, one Granby, is also involved in this action, it being alleged that appellees had…