Lewittes & Sons v. Spielmann

190 Misc. 35, 73 N.Y.S.2d 552, 1947 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3069
CourtAppellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York
DecidedAugust 11, 1947
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 190 Misc. 35 (Lewittes & Sons v. Spielmann) 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
Lewittes & Sons v. Spielmann, 190 Misc. 35, 73 N.Y.S.2d 552, 1947 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3069 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinions

Hammer, J.

That monthly tenants are entitled to thirty days’ notice required by section 232-a of the Beal Property Law is not questioned. Cases supporting that view are good law but not applicable here. The sole question here involved is whether the tenants-appellants are tenants at will or by sufferance as they claim, or monthly tenants as now suggested, and therefore entitled to thirty days’ notice under either section 228 of section 232-a of the Beal Property Law.

The State emergency Commercial Bent Law (L. 1945, ch. 3, § 8, subds. [c], [d], as amd. by L. 1945, ch. 315, § 8, subds. [c], [d], as amd. by L. 1946, ch. 272, § 8, subds. [c], [d]) provides that so long as the tenant continues to pay the rent to which the landlord is entitled no tenant shall be removed notwithstanding that such tenant’s lease or other rental agreement has expired or otherwise terminated, unless the landlord (among the exceptions under which his right to obtain possession and use of his property is accorded recognition) seeks in good faith to recover possession of the commercial space for his immediate and personal use for commercial purposes or being one who has acquired title to the building subsequent to the effective date of the act likewise seeks possession of the commercial space for his immediate and personal use for commercial purposes and has an equity in the property of not less than 25% of the purchase price and then not unless he shall possess an interest no less than 50% of the whole investment in the business he proposes to carry on in such space. The landlord here pleaded and proved the above and the lower court found for and awarded final order to the landlord.

The tenants claimed below and here that they are tenants at will or by sufferance and as such entitled to the thirty days’ notice required by section 228 of the Beal Property Law. The landlord’s position below and here was that the tenancy was not at will or by sufferance and such notice was not required.

It is agreed by this court that the tenancy was not one at will or by sufferance. A tenancy at will is usually at the will of the landlord (Post v. Post, 14 Barb. 253, 258; Sarsfield v. Healy, 50 Barb. 245, 246), although it may be at the will of both parties (Jackson v. Aldrich, 13 Johns. 106, 109). A tenancy at sufferance arises where one comes into possession of lawful title other than by act of law and thereafter continues the occupancy without any right or title (35 C. J., Landlord and Tenant, § 370), as where a tenant after the expiration or determination of the tenancy holds over without the consent of his landlord and merely through the loches of the latter (35 C. J., Landlord [37]*37and Tenant, § 372). The facts in the case on appeal clearly do not constitute a tenancy at will or by sufferance. The decision below therefore would seem to be correct. However, the opinion is stated here, although such point was not made by counsel, that by virtue of paying the rent monthly in advance after the lease “expired” the tenants were monthly tenants so long as they chose to remain in possession and as such they were entitled to thirty days’ notice under section 232-a of the Beal Property Law and the giving thereof was a jurisdictional requirement to be pleaded and proved. It would seem unless it is kept constantly in mind that the law controlling upon both parties is the emergency Commercial Bent Law, error may arise by attempting to read into the emergency statute other provisions of law not incorporated therein by reference either directly or indirectly or included therein by necessary implication. In Stern v. Equitable Trust Co. (238 N. Y. 267, 269-270) construing the Emergency Bent Laws of 1920, it was said:

“ The relation of landlord and tenant is always created by contract, express or implied, and will not be implied where the acts and conduct of the parties negative its existence. The rule that a tenant who holds over after the expiration of a definite term for a year or years may be treated by his landlord as a trespasser or as a tenant from year to year, subject to the conditions of the original lease, except as to duration and amount of rent, if the landlord has raised the rent, is based on the theory of an option implied in law, tendered by the tenant to the landlord which he is at liberty to accept or reject. (Haynes v. Aldrich, 133 N. Y. 287.) If the elements of offer and acceptance, express or implied, are absent, the relation of landlord and tenant does not exist.

“ The primary, but not the only, purpose of the Emergency Bent Laws was to prevent the wholesale eviction of tenants who were willing to pay a reasonable rent but who could not agree with their landlords as to the amount to be paid. By suspending possessory remedies under the lease, these laws extended, against the will of the landlord, the right of the tenant to remain in possession of the leased premises so long as he continued to pay what the Laws style * a reasonable rental ’ or ‘ a reasonable rent or price for their use and occupation.’ The tenant thus remains in possession, not by virtue of any agreement, express or implied, either as to duration of term or amount of rent, but by virtue of the compulsion which the law exerts on the landlord to allow him to remain.

[38]*38■“ The tenant does not hy remaining in possession tender an option to the landlord to pnt him out as a trespasser; neither does he tender an option to allow him to remain as a tenant for any renewed or definite term. The tenant does not offer to remain in possession of the premises. He insists upon doing so. The landlord does not accept his proposition. The law forces it upon him. The tenant does not offer any proposition to the landlord upon which the conventional relation of landlord and tenant, as to length of term and amount of rent, based on offer and acceptance, can be inferred. To this extent the landlord is optionless and the tenant stands on his statutory rights which become the measure of his term and of his liability.” (Italics supplied.) (See, also, People ex rel. Durham R. Corp. v. La Fetra, 230 N. Y. 429.)

The New York Emergency Bent Laws of 1920 were the basic source for the Federal rent regulations of 1943 (8 Federal Begister 1322; see for New York City Defense-Bental Area, 8 Federal Begister 13914), and with the latter furnished the source materials for the New York rent control statutes of 1945.

What is apparently clear indication of the course to be pursued here is that subdivision (c) of section 1 of the Federal Begulation provides that the provisions of any lease or other rental agreement shall remain in force pursuant to the terms thereof, except insofar as those provisions are inconsistent with the regulation. All other provisions remain in force. This seems to be the main difference between the old Emergency Bent Control Law and the later or more modern version; The landlord has no right to claim the term is extended against the desire of the tenant, but if the latter remains in occupancy by virtue of the statute the rental agreement remains in force with its contractual rights and contractual obligations except such as are inconsistent with the emergency law. Higher rent than the maximum is banned but not the obligation to pay the rent in the manner agreed upon in the written lease.

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Bluebook (online)
190 Misc. 35, 73 N.Y.S.2d 552, 1947 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3069, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewittes-sons-v-spielmann-nyappterm-1947.