A tenant who fails to prove one or more elements of an Article 2694 defense may nonetheless avoid eviction for nonpayment when the attempt to use the repair-and-deduct remedy was made in good faith and rent was withheld due to a genuine belief that it was not owed.1 Good faith has been found where a tenant, relying on counsel’s advice, refused to pay more than he thought was due.2
- 1Plunkett v. D & L Fam. Pharmacy, 562 So. 2d 1048, 1052 (La. App. 3 Cir. 1990) (where there was “a serious dispute here as to whether the defendant-lessee's withholding of $534.50 in rent was justified under LSA–C.C. art. 2694,” the court affirmed the trial court’s judgment that rent was owed to the Plaintiff, but reversed a the portion of the judgment terminating the lease); Brewer v. Forest Gravel Co., 135 So. 372 (La. 1931) (lease should not be canceled where “defendant has not refused arbitrarily to pay the rent, but was in good faith in refusing to pay more than he thought was due according to the advice of his counsel”).
- 2Brewer, 135 So at 373.