McKownville Fire District v. Bryn Mawr Bookshop

54 A.D.2d 371, 388 N.Y.S.2d 699, 1976 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 14044
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedNovember 24, 1976
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 54 A.D.2d 371 (McKownville Fire District v. Bryn Mawr Bookshop) 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
McKownville Fire District v. Bryn Mawr Bookshop, 54 A.D.2d 371, 388 N.Y.S.2d 699, 1976 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 14044 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinions

Herlihy, J.

The petitioner commenced a special proceeding in Supreme Court to recover possession of its real property and rents due and owing. The record establishes that the appellant entered into possession of the property pursuant to an oral agreement with the petitioner whereby the appellant was to pay petitioner the sum of $100 per month. The appellant’s contention upon this appeal that the trial court erred in finding a landlord-tenant relationship is without any merit.

After the appellant entered into possession as a month-to-month tenant, the parties reached an oral agreement whereby the appellant agreed to pay one half the cost of "oil, electricity and some of the repairs” in addition to the monthly sum of $100. The appellant and the petitioner became involved in a dispute over repairs to the premises which appellant felt were needed but the petitioner refused to make. As a result, it appears that appellant made no more rental payments after November of 1972. The petitioner’s petition sought rent totaling $1,100 from January 1, 1973 to November 1, 1973.

The appellant in its response to the petition raised several affirmative defenses and counterclaimed for the cost of repairs to a furnace which had to be replaced in 1973, and other miscellaneous items, together with damages to its trade as a [373]*373book store and to its books arising out of faulty conditions in the premises.

The primary issue upon this appeal is the question of title to the premises.

The petitioner contends that the appellant as a tenant cannot raise any issue of title in these summary proceedings and/or that appellant is estopped from raising any question of title. While ordinarily the question of title could not be raised because of jurisdictional problems related to summary proceedings in Justice Court, the present action is in the Supreme Court and there is no jurisdictional problem with respect to the question of title as it might relate to eviction (see Matter of Myers v Blaise, 23 AD2d 518). It is well established that a tenant is estopped from claiming a superior title in himself during the terms of a lease; however, in the case of Metropolitan Fuel Distrs. v Coogan (277 App Div 138, 142), relied upon by the petitioner, the court noted that after a lease had expired the tenant could assert a title superior to the former landlord. In the instant case the tenancy was month to month and the tenant had paid no rentals since November of 1972. There is no merit to the contention that the landlord-tenant relationship estops the tenant in this case from raising the issue of a superior title in itself (see Hetzel v Barber, 69 NY 1,15).

The remaining question as to title is whether or not the appellant established that it in fact was the owner of the premises at any time during its tenancy which would affect the petitioner’s claims in this case.

The petitioner introduced into evidence two deeds to it as grantee of the subject premises. The first deed is dated May 16, 1933 from Shell Eastern Petroleum Products, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and it contained the following clause: "provided, however, that should the premises hereby remised, released and quitclaimed cease to be used for Fire Department purposes by the party of the second part, its successors and assigns, then in that event the said premises shall revert absolutely to the party of the first part, its successors and assigns.”

The second unconditional deed is dated March 26, 1948 from Shell Oil Company, Inc., a Virginia corporation, and was recorded in the proper office on April 5, 1948 and it recites: "Being a part of the same premises conveyed as parcel 4 by Shall Eastern Petroleum Products, Inc., to Shell Union Oil [374]*374Corporation by deed dated October 26, 1936, and recorded in the Clerk’s Office of Albany County, New York, in Book 886 of Deeds, at Page 315; and subsequently conveyed as part of parcel 4 by Shell Union Oil Corporation to Grantor herein, by deed dated April 28, 1939, and recorded in said Clerk’s Office in Book 908 of Deeds, at Page 353.”

The appellant introduced in evidence a deed dated April 12, 1973 from Shell Oil Company, a Delaware corporation, recorded on July 12, 1973 which conveys the subject premises to it. This deed to appellant specifically refers to the 1933 deed of Shell Eastern Petroleum Products, Inc. to petitioner and conveys its reversion interest to appellant.

It is apparent that the mere showing by appellant that it possessed a deed given in 1973 would not be sufficient to establish that its grantor had any title to the premises or to the reversionary interest. To establish such an interest in its grantor, the appellant introduced in evidence a certificate from its grantor which recited that it, Shell Oil Company, had been known as Shell Union Oil Corporation prior to September 22, 1949; that Shell Eastern Petroleum Products, Inc. had been a wholly owned subsidiary and was dissolved on November 2, 1936 with all of its properties going to "Shell Union”; that on May 1, 1939 "Shell Union” conveyed "substantially” all of the former "Shell Eastern” property to Shell Oil Company, Incorporated, a Virginia corporation; that on September 30, 1949 the Virginia corporation was dissolved and conveyed all of its properties to the appellant’s grantor.

This "certificate” or affidavit of identity of the various Shell Corporations and their activities is insufficient to establish the appellant’s claim of title to the reversionary interest in this case. If anything, it tends to establish title in the petitioner by referring to the 1939 conveyance from Shell Union to the Virginia corporation which was petitioner’s grantor in the 1948 deed referred to hereinabove and which referred to a 1939 conveyance to it by Shell Union of the property at issue. The burden of proof as to title was on the appellant as an affirmative defense. While appellant proved that it received title to the reversionary interest from Shell Union which in turn received it from Shell Eastern, the original grantor to petitioner in 1933, the same proof established a conveyance from Shell Union to the Virginia Shell corporation that conveyed the reversion to petitioner in 1948, about 25 years before appellant received a deed. Faced with its own proof of [375]*375title herein, the appellant had the further burden of showing that the conveyance to it was the result of an “unbroken” chain of title. The appellant’s claim that it had title to the reversion is not established. Consequently, the factual and legal issue of whether or not the petitioner had ceased using the premises is not before us.

Upon the issues of eviction and rent due and owing, the petitioner upon its part of the case established a landlord-tenant relationship, the breach of the tenant’s obligation by a failure to pay rents and a right to recover the rents.

DAMAGES

The counterclaim of the appellant for damages for the injuries to its business or supplies was properly denied because of a failure of proof of negligence on the part of the petitioner and/or the breach of a specific duty on the petitioner’s part.

However, the appellant did offer unrebutted proof of the cost of certain repairs which it made and the petitioner concedes that there was an agreement on its part to pay at least one half of the repairs. The trial court found as a fact that the appellant had agreed to pay one half of repairs; however, the sole evidence in the record is that the appellant was to pay one half of “some of the repairs”.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
54 A.D.2d 371, 388 N.Y.S.2d 699, 1976 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 14044, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckownville-fire-district-v-bryn-mawr-bookshop-nyappdiv-1976.