D&R Realty Corp. v. Blakely

9 Misc. 3d 203
CourtCivil Court of the City of New York
DecidedJuly 11, 2005
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 9 Misc. 3d 203 (D&R Realty Corp. v. Blakely) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Civil Court of the City of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
D&R Realty Corp. v. Blakely, 9 Misc. 3d 203 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

John S. Lansden, J.

D&R Realty Corp. seeks to recover possession of an interim multiple dwelling (IMD) loft unit at 42 Greene Street, third [204]*204floor front, New York, New York 10013 (premises), on the grounds that Robert J.E. Blakely, tenant of record, has illegally constructed a corridor in the premises. Respondent appears by counsel but has not interposed an answer. Pursuant to CPLR 3211, respondent moves to dismiss the proceeding due to improper service. Respondent alleges that service of the predicate notice was defective because petitioner failed to add five days for mailing of the notice of termination. Said three-day termination notice was mailed to respondent on November 17, 2004 and expired on November 23, 2004. Respondent argues that pursuant to the decision in Matter of ATM One v Landaverde (2 NY3d 472 [2004]), petitioner was required to add five days for mailing. Petitioner opposes the motion.

Analysis

The issue before this court is whether an additional five days for mailing a notice of termination is required in a proceeding seeking possession of an IMD unit governed by article 7-C of the Multiple Dwelling Law (also known as the Loft Law), in view of Matter of ATM One v Landaverde (2 NY3d 472 [2004]).

In Landaverde, a 10-day notice to cure was mailed on September 8, 2000. The tenant received the notice to cure on September 9, 2000 by both regular and certified mail. Said notice advised her that she had until September 18, 2000 to cure an alleged violation of the maximum occupancy provision of her lease. The trial court dismissed the proceeding, holding that CPLR 2103 (b) (2), which required the adding of five days to a mailing, should be applied in a summary proceeding to ensure that a tenant received the full cure period. Landlord appealed.

The Appellate Term, Second Department, determined that the trial court erred in applying CPLR 2103 (b) (2) as said provision only applies to papers served “in a pending action” (190 Misc 2d 76, 77 [2001]). Since a notice to cure is served prior to the commencement of a proceeding, CPLR 2103 (b) (2) would be inapplicable. However, the Appellate Term upheld the trial court’s decision and dismissed the proceeding as the tenant was not afforded the full 10 days to cure the alleged default. Landlord again appealed.

The Appellate Division, Second Department, agreed with the Appellate Term that the intent of 9 NYCRR 2504.1 (d) (1) (i) is to insure that, prior to commencement of a proceeding, the tenant receives at least 10 days within which to cure the alleged wrongful act (307 AD2d 922). The Appellate Division noted that [205]*205while service by mail was permissible under 9 NYCRR 2508.1, the regulations are silent as to when service is complete, whether it is on the mailing or on the receipt. In looking at the purpose of the governing regulations, the Appellate Division determined that service was completed upon receipt of the notice and subsequently dismissed the proceeding. The landlord obtained leave to be heard by the Court of Appeals on this issue.

Upon reviewing the issue, the Court of Appeals held that where a landlord serves a notice to cure, by mail only, the landlord was required to “compute the date certain by adding five days to the 10-day minimum cure period (see e.g. CPLR 2103 [b] [2]). In this manner, service will be deemed complete upon mailing, and a properly executed affidavit of service will raise a presumption that proper mailing occurred” (2 NY2d at 477-478).

In so holding, the Court also stated that “legislative intent is the great and controlling principle, and the proper judicial function is to discern and apply the will of the [enactors]” (id. at 477).

The Court of Appeals concluded that when reading the service provision, 9 NYCRR 2508.1, together with the notice to cure regulation, 9 NYCRR 2504.1 (d) (1) (i), adding five days as the trial court did, best effected the regulatory purpose of affording tenants the full cure period before they may be subject to lease termination. Adding five days, according to the Court, when serving notices to cure by mail, “balances the need for orderly and efficient resolution of lease violations with the stated purposes of the ETPA” (id. at 478). The primary concern for the Court of Appeals in Landaverde was clearly that tenants receive the benefit of the cure period and not be disadvantaged by the service method.

Respondent herein asserts that this court should reaffirm the position that tenants qualified for protection under the Loft Law have rights and obligations that are read in pari materia with those of rent-stabilized tenants (Matter of Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants v New York City Loft Bd., 66 NY2d 298 [1985]). Respondent seeks to have this court determine that the holding in Landaverde applies to this proceeding and that petitioner was required to add five days to the mailing for service to be proper.

In Matter of Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants v New York City Loft Bd. (66 NY2d 298, 304 [1985]), the Court of Appeals held [206]*206that “statutes in pari materia are to be construed together and ‘as intended to fit into existing laws on the same subject unless a different purpose is clearly shown’ ” (citing Delaware Midland Corp. v Incorporated Vil. of Westhampton Beach, 79 Misc 2d 438, 444 [1974], affd 48 AD2d 681 [1975], affd 39 NY2d 1029 [1976]). The Loft Law was created to protect covered tenants and to provide regulation of IMD units in much the same manner as the Rent Stabilization Law and Code. In Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants, the tenants challenged the propriety of a Loft Board regulation allowing landlords to commence eviction proceedings where protected tenants were not using an IMD as their primary residence. The Court of Appeals specifically rejected the tenants’ argument that as the term “primary residence” did not exist in the Loft Law, as it did in other rent regulatory statutes, article 7-C must be interpreted to cover any IMD, no matter how many other residences a tenant may have or the nature of the use of the IMD unit. To have held otherwise, according to the Court of Appeals, would have produced an “absurd result.” (Id.)

Petitioner asserts that the holding in Landaverde does not apply to the present proceeding for a number of reasons. First, the subject premises is an IMD loft unit where the lease commenced on June 1, 1979 and terminated on May 31, 1984. Thereafter, the terms of the lease agreement were projected into the statutory loft tenancy which is governed by the Loft Law. Therefore, according to petitioner, the method and time for service of notices are governed by the lease in this proceeding and not by a particular code or statute as in Landaverde.

Second, unlike the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 in Landaverde, the notice provision in the subject lease is not ambiguous as to when service is complete. Paragraph 27 of the lease states that if mail is the method of service, the service is complete when the notice is mailed. Petitioner served respondent with a notice of termination after expiration of the notice to cure pursuant to the lease. Paragraph 17 required petitioner to serve a three-day notice of termination. The termination notice was mailed on November 17, 2004 and expired on November 23, 2004.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 Misc. 3d 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dr-realty-corp-v-blakely-nycivct-2005.