Colonna & Co. v. Anthony M. Meyerstein, Inc.

198 Misc. 556, 96 N.Y.S.2d 316, 1950 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1541
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 28, 1950
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 198 Misc. 556 (Colonna & Co. v. Anthony M. Meyerstein, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colonna & Co. v. Anthony M. Meyerstein, Inc., 198 Misc. 556, 96 N.Y.S.2d 316, 1950 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1541 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1950).

Opinion

Pette, J.

Plaintiff instituted this action to recover the sum of $15,000, alleged damages by reason of defendant Anthony M. Meyerstein, Inc.’s (hereinafter referred to as “ Meyer-[557]*557stein ”) failure to vacate the premises located at 42-42 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens County, New York, hereinafter referred to as the Queens Premises ”.

The claim against the Aetna Casualty & Surety Company (hereinafter referred to as “ Aetna ”) is in the sum of $5,000, based on a bond issued pursuant to an order of the Appellate Term, which bond provides that Aetna ‘ ‘ does hereby pursuant to the statute in such case made and provided, undertake, that the appellant, Anthony M. Meyerstein, Inc., will pay all rents, rental value, damages and costs of appeal which may be awarded against said appellant not exceeding the sum of Five Thousand ($5,000) Dollars.”

The answer of defendant Meyerstein ” and amendment thereto, denied the material allegations of the complaint and interposed additional defenses together with counterclaims predicated upon alleged overpayment of rent. The answer and amendment thereto of defendant called Aetna ” likewise denied material allegations of the complaint and interposed additional defenses.

The testimony herein was duly taken for four days at great length, before this court without a jury, before whom there were submitted numerous exhibits; and the presentation of many issues of law and fact requiring careful consideration.

According to good advice by the oft-quoted Alice in Wonderland, the proper way to recount a story is merely to Begin at the beginning* and keep right on to the end.”

The voluminous transcribed record discloses proof by the plaintiff’s president, Benjamin A. Colonna, (a) that on January 23,1947, it acquired title to certain real property known as 42-42 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, in the county of Queens, N. Y.; (b) that defendant, Anthony M. Meyerstein, Inc., was in possession at the time under an expired lease, as a month-to-month tenant, pursuant to an agreement dated September 9, 1943, and certain letters; (c) proceedings under a thirty-day notice of eviction, dated November 27, 1947, were directed to said former tenant defendant, together with other papers, inclusive of the final order and affirmance thereof by the Appellate Term, Second Department, in the prior holdover summary proceedings, instituted by plaintiff, as landlord, in the Municipal Court of the City of New York, First District, Borough of Queens, index No. 177-1947; (d) a certified copy of the order of the Appellate Term, Second Department, dated September 2, 1947; granted an application of said former tenant defendant for [558]*558a stay of execution of the warrant for possession under the final order; (e) a bond in the sum of $5,000 was executed by defendant, Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, dated September 5, 1947; (f) an order of Municipal Court Justice Winters was duly made and entered on November 7, 1947, in said summary proceedings; (g) an extension of bond to cover stay was executed by defendant surety company, dated November 13, 1947; an order of Municipal Court Justice Winters was duly made and entered on December 3,1947, in said summary proceedings; (h) an extension of bond was executed by the defendant surety company, dated December 4, 1947; (i) an order of Municipal Court Justice Winters was duly made and entered on December 15, 1947, in said summary proceedings; (j) an extension of bond was dated December 17,1947, and (k) an order of the Appellate Term, Second Department, was dated June 13, 1947.

Upon consent, the first and second counterclaims of defendant Meyerstein were severed, without prejudice and the answer of the defendant “ Aetna ” as to the setoffs, was deemed amended accordingly.

A concession was made .by the respective parties that the defendant, Anthony M. Meyerstein, Inc., surrendered possession of the demised premises on December 23, 1947.

Plaintiff offered additional testimony to the effect that its business in February, 1947, was located at Locust Avenue and the East River, County of Bronx, N. Y., under the provisions of a written lease with its landlord, Petroleum Terminal Corporation. Photographs of these premises, the improvements, stock and equipment thereon were offered in evidence. A letter of Island Petroleum Corporation to Baucol Realty Corporation, dated October 9, 1946, claimed to have been part of the lease, was also offered first for identification, and later in evidence, together with a paper containing the signature of Harold L. Valentine, president of Petroleum Terminal Corporation, purporting to establish compliance with the provisions of the emergency rent laws of New York.

Checks, representing payment of rent by plaintiff for the Locust Avenue property to Petroleum Terminal Corporation, were also received in evidence. This purported to establish payment of rent from December 1, 1947, to March 31, 1948, in the sum of $8,000. Plaintiff offered proof as to the alleged delay in taking possession of the Long Island City property after the tenant-defendant had surrendered possession thereof in December, 1947, which was in the nature of United States Department of Commerce weather reports.

[559]*559Testimony was also submitted showing that, with reference to the Bronx property, prior to October, 1944, and including March 1, 1943, the “ freeze date ”, the rent paid was $350 per month, which increased to $665 per month for the period of October, 1944, to December, 1945, and subsequently to $1,000 per month.

Originally, one Oolbau Realty Corporation, was the owner of the Queens premises, and entered into an agreement of lease with “ Meyerstein ” for a period of one year commencing September 1, 1943 and ending August 31, 1944, with the option in “ Meyerstein ” to renew the lease for two additional terms of one year each. These options were exercised and the last of the terms ended on August 31, 1946. Thereafter Meyerstein ” continued in possession of the premises as a statutory tenant, pursuant to the provisions of chapter 3 of the Laws of 1945 of the State of New York, as amended.

On January 23,1947, Colbau Realty Corporation conveyed the premises to the plaintiff. All the outstanding stock of the Colbau Realty Corporation and the plaintiff corporation are owned in equal proportions by Benjamin A. Colonna and Louis Baum, who are also the directors of both corporations.

“ Meyerstein ” had, during the course of the war, numerous contracts with the United States of America for the design, fabrication and erection of many heavy cranes and other items of "war equipment. It had stored in the yard a large number of cranes ordered by the United States Government, which were fully fabricated and ready for shipment, but which the United States Government directed “ Meyerstein ” to hold in its yard and which Meyerstein ” could not deliver until given permission to do so by the Federal Government, and it was not until the Federal Government took possession of the cranes and allowed them to be removed from the yard, that “ Meyerstein ” was able to deliver possession of the premises to the plaintiff.

A few days after the cranes were taken by the United States Government, “ Meyerstein ” vacated the premises.

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Bluebook (online)
198 Misc. 556, 96 N.Y.S.2d 316, 1950 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1541, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colonna-co-v-anthony-m-meyerstein-inc-nysupct-1950.