Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank v. One Hundred Eight West Forty Ninth Street Corp.

255 A.D. 570, 8 N.Y.S.2d 354, 1938 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4807
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 23, 1938
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 255 A.D. 570 (Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank v. One Hundred Eight West Forty Ninth Street Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank v. One Hundred Eight West Forty Ninth Street Corp., 255 A.D. 570, 8 N.Y.S.2d 354, 1938 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4807 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

Callahan, J.

The landlord instituted this summary proceeding in the Municipal Court to recover certain premises for non-payment of an installment of rent due January 15, 1938, in the sum of $375 and the sum of $45.01 as additional rent alleged to be due for certain repairs made by the landlord.

The tenant admitted the execution of a lease, hiring from the landlord certain premises described as the second, third, fourth and fifth floors in buildings known as Nos. 108-110-112-114 West Forty-ninth street, New York, N. Y., at an annual rental of $9,000, payable in semi-monthly installments of $375 in advance, on the first and fifteenth days of each month, and that the tenant entered into the possession of the premises and still occupies the same, but denied each and every other allegation contained in the petition.

For a separate defense and counterclaim, and by way of setoff, the tenant further alleged that under the lease the landlord was obligated to make all repairs in and to the demised premises, excepting such repairs as were occasioned by the neglect or misuse of the tenant; that certain repairs, consisting of tile work in various apartments in the premises, became necessary, and that the necessity for the same did not -arise out of neglect or misuse on the part of the tenant; that the landlord was duly notified by the tenant.of the necessity for the making of the said repairs, but the landlord failed to repair, whereupon the tenant caused the repairs to be made at a cost of $365; that the tenant duly tendered to the landlord the sum of ten dollars, representing the difference between the installment of rent due and owing under the aforesaid agreement and the cost of making the repairs, but the tender was refused; that the tenant is entitled to a judgment setting off the $365 against the $375 rent which was due, leaving a balance of ten dollars owing from the tenant to the landlord.

It was conceded that the premises involved in the lease were multiple dwellings; that the tenant leased them for the purpose of renting them as apartments, furnished rooms and a hotel.

[572]*572The tenant conceded the truth of all of the allegations of the petition, excepting so much as alleged that the sum claimed by the-landlord for repairs was due and owing, but as to such repairs the tenant conceded that the work was done by the landlord, that the landlord paid forty-five dollars and one cent for such work and that that amount was the fair and reasonable value thereof.

The landlord conceded that it was duly notified by the tenant of the claimed necessity for the making of the said repairs to the tile work; that it failed to make such repairs after such notice; that the tenant thereupon itself caused the repairs to be made at a cost to it of $365, which was the fair and reasonable value thereof, and that the tenant thereafter duly tendered to the landlord the sum of ten dollars, representing the difference between the installment of rent due on January 15, 1938, and the cost of making the repairs, but that it refused the tenant’s tender.

Following these concessions, the landlord offered the lease in evidence and rested.

The tenant adduced considerable testimony regarding the condition of the tile in the early part of January, 1938, immediately prior to its repair by the tenant, for the purpose of showing that the necessity for these repairs did not arise out of neglect or misuse by the tenant.

The landlord did not offer any testimony to controvert the last claim.

When both sides had rested, counsel for the landlord contended that in the absence of an express covenant in the lease whereby the landlord undertook the obligation to repair, that obligation, by virtue of common law, rested upon the tenant.

The tenant, on the other hand, contended that,' inasmuch as the premises in question constituted a multiple dwelling and were I leased by it to be sublet for dwelling purposes, the landlord’s contention in regard to the common law was untenable and no longer applied, but that it was the landlord’s duty to repair under section 78 of the Multiple Dwelling Law. It claimed that the common-law obligation to repair, which once rested upon the tenant, had been shifted upon the shoulders of the landlord by the statute, and that before the tenant would be obligated to repair, such obligation could only arise out of an express assumption on its part in the lease, and was limited strictly to the repairs which the tenant thereby expressly undertook to make.

Answering the tenant’s argument, the landlord took the position that the tenant, as lessee of the whole of the dwelling portions of the premises, was afforded no protection by section 78 of the Multiple Dwelling Law, as the tenant had assumed the liability imposed on an owner by that statute.

[573]*573In making the last contention, the landlord relied on the decision of the Appellate Term, First Department, in King v. Six Ninety & Two Realty Corp. (153 Misc. 619). The authority cited seems to have been overruled by the recent decision of the Court of Appeals in Weiner v. Leroco Realty Corp. (279 N. Y. 127), at least in so far as the question relates to an owner’s liability for tort. The Court of Appeals held that the owner of the fee may be held hable to one injured on the premises for failure to comply with section 78 of the Multiple Dwelling Law, though it has leased the whole premises to another. We are not determining the question of liability in tort of this lessor for personal injuries suffered by a tenant or another, but solely the obligations of the parties under a lease and the right of the lessee to recover from the lessor for breach thereof.

The trial court herein decided in favor of the landlord, limiting its judgment solely to the installment of rent which fell due on January 15, 1938. It disallowed, without comment, the claims of both the landlord and the tenant for reimbursement for the repairs in question. The tenant then appealed to the Appellate Term, which affirmed the judgment of the trial court, but with leave in the order of affirmance to appeal to this court.

The landlord and tenant stipulated, on the appeal to the Appellate Term, that the lease consisted of a printed form, known as standard form of apartment lease, prepared by the Real Estate Board of New York, Inc., and printed in the record on appeal, paragraphs numbered “ 2,” “ 4,” “ 5,” “ 6,” “ 8,” “ 13,” “ 17,” “ 18,” “ 37 ” and “ 40 ” thereof.

The repair clause of the lease reads as follows: “ 5. Tenant shall take good care of demised premises and fixtures therein and subject to provisions of Article 4 hereof shall make, as and when needed, as a result of misuse or neglect by Tenant, all repairs except structural repairs not occasioned by Tenant’s use and occupancy in and about demised premises necessary to preserve them in good order and condition, which repairs shall be in quality and class equal to the original work.

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Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank v. One Hundred Eight West Forty Ninth Street Corp.
256 A.D. 911 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1939)

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Bluebook (online)
255 A.D. 570, 8 N.Y.S.2d 354, 1938 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/emigrant-industrial-savings-bank-v-one-hundred-eight-west-forty-ninth-nyappdiv-1938.