Besmanoff v. Allen

137 Misc. 2d 706, 521 N.Y.S.2d 982, 1987 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2703
CourtLong Beach City Court
DecidedNovember 23, 1987
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 137 Misc. 2d 706 (Besmanoff v. Allen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Long Beach City Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Besmanoff v. Allen, 137 Misc. 2d 706, 521 N.Y.S.2d 982, 1987 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2703 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Jerome B. Fleischman, J.

This holdover summary proceeding involves a so-called "Section 8 Lease” entered into pursuant to United States Housing Act of 1937 § 8, as amended (42 USC § 1437f), under the Existing Housing Program, whereby rent payments are subsidized by the Federal Government. The initial one-year term of the lease expired, after which the tenant respondent continued in possession as a month-to-month tenant under the same terms and conditions as the original lease.

[707]*707Prior to the commencement of this proceeding, the petitioner landlord caused a 30-day notice terminating the tenancy to be served on the respondent tenant, and mailed a copy to the local agency which administers the section 8 program (hereinafter referred to as PHA). While the petition alleges the reason for termination to be that petitioners desire to sell the house, which is a two-family house occupied only by the parties to this proceeding, and relocate in Arizona, no reason for termination was set forth in the 30-day notice. However, petitioners did testify at trial that they advised respondent orally as to the reason for termination. They further testified that they were retired and had purchased a house in Arizona where they were moving for health reasons and to be near their children and grandchildren. They believed that they could get a better price for their house if it were vacant.

Respondent did not testify or present any evidence. Her attorneys moved to dismiss the petition on three grounds. First, that this court had no jurisdiction to entertain the instant proceeding because the lease was for an indefinite period and could only be terminated for good cause which required an action for ejectment in the Supreme Court.

Second, the 30-day notice was defective because it did not set forth the reason for termination.

Third, the petitioners did not establish good cause for terminating the tenancy.

The legislative intent of the United States Congress is clearly enunciated in United States Housing Act of 1937 § 8, as amended (42 USC § 1437f [a]), as follows: "For the purpose of aiding lower-income families in obtaining a decent place to live and of promoting economically mixed housing, assistance payments may be made with respect to existing housing in accordance with the provisions of this section.”

This statute further provides in subdivision (d) (1) (B) (ii) that "the owner shall not terminate the tenancy except for serious or repeated violation of the terms and conditions of the lease, for violation of applicable Federal, State, or local law, or for other good cause”.

In keeping with the aforestated legislative intent, the courts have held that a section 8 tenant has a statutory right to continue in possession of the premises even after the expiration of the lease term, and cannot be evicted unless good cause is shown. (Mitchell v United States Dept. of Horn. & Urban Dev., 569 F Supp 701; Swann v Gastonia Hous. Auth., 675 F2d [708]*7081342; Greenwich Gardens Assocs. v Pitt, 126 Misc 2d 947; Rushie v Berland, 130 Misc 2d 816.)

As to whether such good cause can be established in a summary proceeding under RPAPL article 7, or only by an action for ejectment, there appears to be no reported cases in New York on this point. Respondent’s attorneys argue that the determinative issue is whether the right to terminate the lease for good cause involves a conditional limitation or a condition subsequent. If the former, summary proceedings would be available to the petitioner; if the latter, it would not. (2 Rasch, New York Landlord and Tenant — Summary Proceedings §§ 1007, 1008 [2d ed].)

Historically, the courts viewed the original statute of 1820 (ch 194), which first authorized summary dispossession as being in derogation of common law and in order to avoid an immediate forefeiture of the tenancy for a breach of a condition of the lease, narrowly construed the statute to apply only to nonpayment of rent and the expiration of the lease term by lapse of time. (Oakley v Schoonmaker, 15 Wend 226; Beach v Nixon, 9 NY 35.) In so doing, the courts found that the lease did not "expire” but "terminated” where a landlord exercised an option to declare the lease at an end by reason of the breach of a condition, in which event, so the reasoning was established that the statute did not apply and the landlord was relegated to the more lengthy common-law action of ejectment. (Penoyer v Brown, 13 Abb NC 82; Matter of Guaranty Bldg. Co., 52 App Div 140; Norman S. Riesenfeld, Inc. v R-W Realty Co., 223 App Div 140.)

The theory of this distinction between "expire” and "terminate” was that the summary proceeding statute covered only situations where the lease expired automatically upon the happening of the event, as opposed to the landlord having to take some action to exercise his right to terminate the lease.

However, the distinction between "expire” and "terminate” soon became muddled, if not entirely obliterated, by a series of cases which found that an option reposed in a landlord to “terminate” a lease upon the happening of an event could confer summary proceeding jurisdiction upon a court when coupled with a notice of a time after which the lease would "expire.” Thus, in the leading case of Matter of Miller v Levi (44 NY 489, 490) it was held that a lease where the landlord had a " 'privilege reserved to terminate the lease at the end of any year by giving sixty days previous notice, in case he [709]*709should sell or desire to rebuild’ ”, was a conditional limitation and not a condition subsequent, and summary proceeding jurisdiction would lie. The court reasoned that the lease term was conditionally limited by the sale and notice, the lease expiring automatically at the end of the 60-day notice.

It is difficult for this court to understand why the notice creating a lapse of time should make a difference. If the termination was dependent upon the landlord exercising an option, the lease did not automatically end upon the happening of the event, but upon the landlord "terminating” the lease by exercising his option. Perhaps it would have been more theoretically defensible if the Court of Appeals in Matter of Miller v Levi (supra) would have based its distinction of Beach v Nixon (supra) on the fact that the latter involved a breach of a condition on the part of the tenant resulting in a forfeiture of the term, while the former did not. But they did not and, over the years, the reasoning in Matter of Miller v Levi (supra) has been applied to confer summary proceeding jurisdiction in cases involving breaches of conditions where the landlord had the right to "terminate” the lease upon giving notice. (Ehret Holding Corp. v Anderson Galleries, 138 Misc 722; Raywood v Holden, 134 Misc 443, affd App Term, 1st Dept, June 20, 1929; Reisberg v Ownit Realty Corp., 133 Misc 156; Martin v Crossley, 46 Misc 254.)

It is submitted that this distinction is fictitious and contrary to the original rationale upon which the earlier cases held that a summary proceeding was not available to effect a forfeiture of the term upon a breach of a condition subsequent. I believe that the point can best be illustrated by an examination of the case of Perrotta v Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. (98 AD2d 1).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Lamlon Development Corp. v. Owens
141 Misc. 2d 287 (Nassau County District Court, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
137 Misc. 2d 706, 521 N.Y.S.2d 982, 1987 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2703, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/besmanoff-v-allen-nylbccityct-1987.