Ruhlander v. District Court of Hampshire

How later courts describe this case

• discussing G. L. c. 186, § 15B, which provides that tenant “shall be awarded [treble] damages”
• security deposit remains at all times the money of the tenant to be held by the landlord in trust in an interest-bearing account
• “Section 15B is not without reason. The question of security deposits has long been agitated; the problems are well known; and the Legislature has attempted progressively to deal with them” [footnote omitted]
• “The singling out for such civil penalties of particular conduct, especially conduct in the economic sphere, raises no question under the equal protection guarantees unless, perchance the selection was bereft of a plausible reason.”