East Four-Forty Associates v. Ewell

138 Misc. 2d 235, 527 N.Y.S.2d 204, 1988 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 299
CourtAppellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York
DecidedFebruary 18, 1988
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 138 Misc. 2d 235 (East Four-Forty Associates v. Ewell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
East Four-Forty Associates v. Ewell, 138 Misc. 2d 235, 527 N.Y.S.2d 204, 1988 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 299 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

Per Curiam.

This holdover proceeding was brought by the petitioner East Four-Forty Associates, the proprietary lessee of the premises, against respondent Anthony J. Ewell, an alleged former licensee still in occupancy of those premises. Petitioner contends that the respondent cannot succeed to the rent-stabilized tenancy of the deceased tenant of record, respondent’s mother, Nancy Ewell Arent, who died March 3, 1985, and whose last renewal lease expired January 31, 1985.

The petition asserts, inter alia, that the respondent having been a licensee of his mother and that license having terminated upon her death, petitioner is entitled to a final judgment of possession, to an award of rent and/or use and occupation unpaid since March 1985 and to attorney’s fees. Respondent’s answer consists of specific denials, a first affirmative defense that the respondent is, in his own right, a "tenant” entitled to possession of the premises; a second affirmative defense that the petitioner improperly deprived respondent’s mother, before her death, of a two-year renewal lease — which should have extended from the January 31, 1985 expiration of her last renewal lease to January 31, 1987 — and consequently the respondent himself is properly in possession [237]*237of the premises; and a third affirmative defense and first counterclaim alleging that petitioner had constructive notice of respondent’s occupancy, that petitioner commenced this proceeding merely to harass respondent and that respondent is entitled to recover legal fees, compensatory damages, and punitive damages. After joinder of issue, petitioner moved and the respondent cross-moved for summary judgment. The motion court denied the respective motions, and both parties appeal.

The record before us, sparse as it is, reflects that in 1972 the apartment at issue was leased by the respondent’s grandmother, ostensibly for her own use, and the use of respondent’s mother and respondent. The respondent’s grandmother died in 1980 and the apartment was then leased by respondent’s mother, ostensibly for her own use and the use of the respondent. The respondent claims to have resided in the apartment since 1972; admittedly he was never party to a lease for the premises.

The respondent contends that his mother’s failure to execute a two-year lease renewal shortly before her death in 1985 resulted from the petitioner’s misspelling of her name as "Mrs. Nancy T. Ewell Ar” (instead of her correct name, "Mrs. Nancy T. Ewell Arent”) in a notice of intent to renew form and from petitioner’s failure, after notification, to correct this error before her death. The misspelling complained of, a trifling error at best, could have easily been corrected by respondent’s mother had she merely penned in her full name, executed the form indicating her intent to renew her lease, and returned the form to the petitioner. Even were we to accept the premise of the respondent’s second affirmative defense — that petitioner’s failure to properly offer his mother a renewal lease entitled him to remain in possession after the January 31, 1985 expiration of her last renewal lease and after her death — it is no longer a viable defense to this proceeding because, even deeming such a renewal lease to have been executed by her, it would have expired on January 31, 1987.

Respondent’s third affirmative defense and first counterclaim, based upon a claim of harassment, also fails. A bona fide dispute exists as to respondent’s entitlement to remain in possession of the premises after the death and expiration of the last renewal lease of the tenant of record. Thus it is respondent’s first affirmative defense — that he is a tenant by [238]*238virtue of succession rights to the subject premises — that we need address.1

But do succession rights of any sort exist in New York City rent-stabilized apartments? In two cases, Tagert v 211 E. 70th St. Co. (63 NY2d 818 [Oct. 9, 1984]) and Sullivan v Brevard Assocs. (66 NY2d 489 [Nov. 19, 1985]), the Court of Appeals indicates that they do not, and that landlords need offer renewal leases only to rent-stabilized tenants of record and need not offer renewal leases to family members of tenants of record upon the death or departure of tenants of record.

In Tagert (supra) the Court of Appeals held that upon the departure of the tenant of record, landlord was not obligated to allow tenant’s son and tenant’s son’s family to enter into possession for the remainder of the lease and/or for the period of the renewal term. In addition, the court in Tagert (at 821), in dicta, observed: "only the tenant may renew a lease; family members have no such right after the tenant has vacated (Administrative Code, § YY51-6.0, subd c, par [4]). Thus, while the lease provision may permit a tenant’s family to occupy an apartment with him, and allow those family members who actually live with him to continue in residence for the remainder of the lease term in his absence (Matter of Cale Dev. Co. v Conciliation & Appeals Bd., 61 NY2d 976), the lease provision does not permit family members to succeed to possession by moving into an apartment upon the tenant’s departure, and it does not require a landlord to renew a lease as an apartment is successively passed to members of the tenant’s family”.

Although the above-quoted declaration appears to be a dispositive statement that succession rights do not exist under the Rent Stabilization Law of 1969, the Court of Appeals in Tagert (supra) did not have before it a situation in which a family member had actually occupied premises contemporaneously with a tenant of record and remained in occupancy after the death or departure of the tenant of record. That circumstance, however, was squarely confronted by the Court of [239]*239Appeals in the Sullivan case (supra). In Sullivan, a sister of the tenant, who had occupied an apartment with the tenant, sought to succeed to the tenancy upon the tenant’s departure from the premises. Although the duration of contemporaneous occupancy of the premises by the tenant and her sister does not appear to have been for an extended period, the Court of Appeals eschewed any indication that its resolution of the appeal was predicated upon the limited period of their contemporaneous occupancy. Judge Kaye, writing for the unanimous court, began her opinion with the unqualified observation (at 490-491): "Under New York City’s Rent Stabilization Law, a landlord need offer a renewal lease only to a tenant of record, and is not obligated to offer a renewal lease to a relative of the tenant who occupies the apartment with the tenant during a portion of the lease term”.

As support for that unqualified proposition, the Sullivan court states that the New York City Rent Stabilization Law requires that a renewal lease be offered only to a "tenant” (citing Administrative Code of City of New York former § YY51-6.0 [c] [4], now § 26-511 [c] [4]), that no provision of law expands the definition of "rent-stabilized tenant” beyond the definition of "tenant” in a lease, and, indeed, that absent from the city Rent Stabilization Law is any definition of the term "tenant,” leaving only the lease definition of "tenant,” as indicative of those protected by the Rent Stabilization Law. As additional support for the proposition that succession rights do not exist in rent-stabilized premises, the Sullivan

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Bluebook (online)
138 Misc. 2d 235, 527 N.Y.S.2d 204, 1988 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/east-four-forty-associates-v-ewell-nyappterm-1988.