Lipsitz v. Mayor of Baltimore

P®R Curiam. Bessie Lipsitz, the owner of the property at 2032 East Baltimore Street, applied to the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals for permission to continue a claimed non-conforming use of the premises to house five families. The board disapproved the application and the owner appealed to the Baltimore City Court. When that court affirmed the board, the owner appealed to this Court.

The owner, claiming that the weight of the evidence showed that the premises, which had facilities for five housekeeping units, was occupied by five families on March 30, 1931 [the date fixed in § 13(f) of the zoning ordinance], and that such non-conforming use had continued uninterruptedly to the date of the application, contends that the decisions of the board and the lower court were arbitrary and capricious. There was testimony by one witness that five families had always been housed on the premises since 1927 or 1928. There was also testimony by the owner and other witnesses that five families had occupied the property as early as 1925 and for at least nine or ten years thereafter and that there had been no change in the five-family-occupancy during the four or five years preceding the filing of the application. On the other hand there was documentary evidence in the form of a summary of the “police report”, on file in the office of the zoning