Fifth Avenue Realty Corp. v. Lynch

10 Misc. 2d 391, 166 N.Y.S.2d 687, 1957 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2689
CourtCity of New York Municipal Court
DecidedJuly 19, 1957
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 10 Misc. 2d 391 (Fifth Avenue Realty Corp. v. Lynch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering City of New York Municipal Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fifth Avenue Realty Corp. v. Lynch, 10 Misc. 2d 391, 166 N.Y.S.2d 687, 1957 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2689 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1957).

Opinion

George Starke, J.

In this holdover proceeding the landlord seeks to evict the tenant for breach of a substantial obligation of her tenancy. The facts have been stipulated, the issues narrowed and the court’s path charted and circumscribed.

The agreed facts are that the tenant, a residential statutory tenant since the inception of rent control, entered into a written lease on February 2, 1954 with the then landlord for a term of two years expiring January 31, 1956 at an increased rental. This lease contained the usual restrictive provisions limiting the use of the apartment to the tenant and her immediate family and prohibiting assignments or sublettings. However, a specific provision in the lease provided: ‘' The Tenant has the right to sublet this apartment, subtenant to be approved by the Landlord, anytime during the term of this lease. However, Landlord will not withhold his reasonable consent.” (Italics mine.)

The State Rent and Eviction Regulations of the Rent Commission require (§ 33, subd. 2) the filing of a “ Report of Lease ’ ’ certifying that the landlord is maintaining all essential services furnished or required to be furnished as of the date determining the maximum rent and will continue to do so as long as the increase in maximum rent continues in effect; (a like provision must be included in the lease) and a statement of any additional services or equipment furnished to the tenant as a consideration for the execution of the lease.

The lease here contains such a certification and a proper Report of Lease ’’ was duly filed with the Rent Commission.

In accordance with the quoted permissive provision in the lease, the tenant sublet her apartment with the then and present landlord’s consent (the present landlord having acquired the property in 1955) during the winters (January through March) of 1954, 1955 and 1956.

As indicated before, the lease expired January 1, 1956, and the tenant continued in possession as a statutory tenant. In November, 1956 the tenant sought the landlord’s permission to sublet for the 1957 winter season. Permission was refused by the landlord who claimed that the privilege to sublet expired when the lease ended. The tenant, nevertheless, proceeded to sublet the apartment effective from January, 1957. Promptly, after notices to desist proved abortive, this holdover proceeding followed, the landlord claiming a breach of a substantial obligation of the tenant’s tenancy; and the tenant claiming that the right to sublet survived the expiration of the lease as an essential service ” that the landlord is required to furnish.

[393]*393The issue sub judice, is: Did the right in the lease to sublet project into the statutory tenancy after the expiration of the lease?

Factually, the tenant contends that the ‘ ‘ Report of Lease ’ ’ certifies the furnishing of the essential services as of the date determining the maximum rent; that the date determining the maximum rent is February 2, 1954- — the date of the execution of the lease; and essential services include the sublet rights.

The difficulty with this contention, however, is that the Rent and Eviction Regulations prescribe the date determining the maximum rent as March 1, 1950 (§ 21, subd. 2); and define essential services as (§ 3, subd. 4): “ Those essential services which the landlord was providing, or which he was obligated to provide, on March 1, 1950, and which were included with the maximum rent for the housing accommodation on that date. These may include, for example, any or all of the following: repairs, decorating and maintenance, the furnishing of light, heat, hot and cold water, telephone, elevator service, kitchen, bath and laundry facilities and privileges, maid service, linen service, janitor service, and removal of refuse.”

In any event, since the tenant had no right to sublet prior to the execution of the lease and since the lease limits that right only during the term of the lease, the tenant’s reliance on the “ Report of Lease ” is misplaced. The Report of Lease ” is primarily for the Rent Commission’s statistical and supervisory purpose; it does not create or vest rights.

Legally, the tenant argues, that the right to sublet is projected into the statutory tenancy notwithstanding the limitation in the lease that the right to sublet was only available any time during the term of this lease.” With this contention, the court cannot agree.

A statutory tenant has only those rights which the Emergency Rent Laws specifically provide (cf. Drinkhouse v. Parka Corp., 3 N Y 2d 82). These laws permit a statutory tenant to hold over ‘ ‘ not because he has any property right or estate in the premises, but because the emergency laws forbid his eviction ’ ’ (Wasservogel v. Meyerowitz, 300 N. Y. 125, 132), but do not permit a tenant to commercialize with the premises as an owner while restricting the landlord’s right of ownership. The spirit and purpose of the rent laws require no such extension of rights which would have been unavailing were there no rent control. “ H[er] occupancy of the apartment after h[er] lease expired was not under any agreement express or implied but by virtue of a compulsion exerted on the landlord by the [394]*394local emergency rent law which allowed h[er] to remain in possession.” (Whitmarsh v. Farnell, 298 N. Y. 336, 343.)

The rationale permeating present residential rent control is threefold: — assurance to a tenant in possession of his right to continued possession, at a controlled rental, with a continuation of those services in effect on the maximum State rent date. An extension of those rights beyond the purport of rent control is neither warranted nor justifiable.

Restrictive covenants in leases have been projected into the statutory tenancy after the expiration of the lease. Thus, a restriction in an expired lease against an assignment or subletting was projected into the statutory tenancy. (Glauberman v. University Place Apts., 188 Misc. 277, affd. 272 App. Div. 758, motion for leave to appeal dismissed 297 N. Y. 587); as was a restriction against subletting without the landlord’s consent (130 West 57 Corp. v. Hyman, 188 Misc. 92); and a waiver of a jury trial (Jamaica Investors v. Blacharsh, 193 Misc. 949).

The reason given is “ The protection afforded the tenant must only'be commensurate with the extent of the emergency.” (130 West 57 Corp. v. Hyman, 188 Misc. 92, 93, supra.)

Permissive or optional covenants contained in written leases have not been projected into the statutory tenancy. Thus, an automatic renewal clause (Park View Gardens v. Greene, 274 App. Div. 1062); a provision for a concession (Miltonian Realty Corp. v. Markowitz, 184 Misc. 360; Macsher Realty Corp. v. Knobler, 184 Misc. 56); or an option to purchase (Rabinovitz v. Williamson, 194 Misc. 17, affd. 275 App. Div. 841, motion for leave to appeal denied 299 N. Y. 800) were held not projected into the statutory tenancy. The reason for it is aptly summarized by Mr. Justice Froessel in Rabinovitz v. Williamson (supra p. 20): Our Legislature did not find the existence of an emergency with respect to the exercise of options.”

The lease limits the tenant’s right to sublet only during the term of the lease.

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Bluebook (online)
10 Misc. 2d 391, 166 N.Y.S.2d 687, 1957 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2689, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fifth-avenue-realty-corp-v-lynch-nynyccityct-1957.