New York State Commission Against Discrimination v. Pelham Hall Apartments, Inc.

10 Misc. 2d 334, 170 N.Y.S.2d 750, 1958 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4110
New York Supreme Court·Decided January 16, 1958·Published·Cited by 17 cases

Opinion

Samuel W. Eager, J.

This is a proceeding authorized by section 298 of article 15 of the Executive Law, which article is known as the “ Law Against Discrimination.” The proceeding is instituted in this court by the New York State Commission Against Discrimination to enforce its order directed against alleged discriminatory practices of respondents with respect to leasing of apartments in alleged publicly assisted housing accommodations. The respondent, Pelham Hall Apartments, Inc., hereinafter referred to as “ Pelham ”, is the owner of the housing accommodations in question, to wit, a multiple apartment dwelling known as and hereinafter referred to as Rochelle Arms ’ ’, situate at New Rochelle, New York. Said respondent is a privately owned stock corporation. The individual respondents are officers of the corporation and have acted as its manag[337] ing agents in the matter of the leasing of accommodations therein.

It appears that, pursuant to section 297 of said article 15, one Norris G. Shervington, a Negro, did duly make and file a verified complaint with the commission charging that the respondents, because of his color, refused to lease him an apartment in Rochelle Arms. The discrimination against Shervington because of his race and color was admitted by the respondents. Generally stated, however, their position was, first, that the apartment building, Rochelle Arms, was not ‘ ‘ publicly-assisted housing accommodations ” subject to the provisions of the statutes providing against discrimination in leasing of such housing accommodations; and, second, that, in any event, the constitutional rights of the respondents are violated by the application of the provisions of such statutes as against them and their apartment building. The commission, proceeding on the assumption that the statutory provisions were valid and without passing on the constitutional questions, held the provisions applicable to Rochelle Arms and the acts of respondents. Thereupon, the commission, on July 18,1957, pursuant to section 297 of the Executive Law, rendered the cease and desist order sought to be enforced in this proceeding.

Now, the Court of Appeals in Dorsey v. Stuyvesant Town Corp. (299 N. Y. 512) held that the equal protection clauses of the Federal and State Constitutions could not be successfully invoked to protect a prospective tenant against racial discrimination with respect to tenancy in a privately owned apartment building, and that the mere fact that a private builder or owner had received governmental assistance in connection with an apartment building project would not render applicable those clauses to bar racial discrimination in the renting of apartments in the building. The court further held that generally speaking the opportunity to acquire a tenancy in privately owned real property was not a civil right and that, therefore, under the law then existing, the private owner of an apartment building, whether or not erected or financed with governmental assistance, would not be in violation of the civil rights clause (art. I, § 11) of the State Constitution in refusing rental of an apartment therein for racial reasons.

The Court of Appeals, in the Dorsey case (supra), however, pointed out that the ‘ ‘ civil rights ” referred to in the civil rights clause in section 11 of article I of the State Constitution are “ those elsewhere declared (p. 531). It referred to the statement of the chairman of the Bill of Rights Committee at the Constitutional Convention of 1938 (p. 531) “ to the effect that [338] the provision in question was not self-executing and that it was implicit that it required legislative implementation to be effective (2 Rev. Record of N. Y. State Constitutional Convention, 1938, p. 1144) ”. Accordingly, the court held that the constitutional provision did not itself apply to prohibit racial discrimination in housing. The court, furthermore, in the opinion concurred in by the majority, gave indication that it felt that the matter of protection against racial discrimination was a proper function for State law and that the State had the power to enact legislation providing against such discrimination in new areas such as in the case of publicly assisted housing accommodations.

The court declared (p. 534): That high responsibility of the States, implicit in our Federal system, indicates that the political processes must furnish the appropriate means for extension of those rights in areas wherein they have not been heretofore asserted.”

In 1950, the year following the decision in the Dorsey case (supra), the Legislature, declaring itself as acting in the exercise of the police power of the state for the protection of the welfare, health and peace of the people of this state and the fulfillment and enforcement, of the provisions of the constitution of this state concerning civil rights ”, enacted article 2-A of the Civil Rights Law to specifically provide against the practice of discrimination in publicly assisted housing accommodations. By amendment in 1955 to section 18-b of the Civil Rights Law, effective July 1, 1955, included within ‘ publicly assisted housing accommodation ’ ’, to which said article 2-A was made applicable, was housing which is located in a multiple dwelling, ‘ ‘ the acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, repair or maintenance of which is, after. July first, nineteen hundred fifty-five, financed in whole or in part by a loan, whether or not secured by a mortgage, the repayment of which is guaranteed or insured by the federal government or any agency thereof, or the state or any of its political subdivisions or any agency thereof, provided that such a housing accommodation shall be deemed to be publicly assisted only during the life of such loan and such guaranty or insurance ”.

By virtue of the said 1955 amendment to said section 18-b of the Civil Rights Law, discrimination in housing accommodations because of race, color, religion or national origin is now prohibited in multiple dwellings of the type and style of Rochelle Arms which, after July 1, 1955, received the benefit of FHA or other publicly assisted financing. There was a further amendment to said section 18-b in 1956 having to do with the definition [339] of a multiple dwelling covered by the law, but such amendment is of no consequence to the questions here, inasmuch as Rochelle Arms was of the type and nature of a multiple dwelling included within the 1955 law as well as the 1956 law.

In 1956, effective July 1, 1956, the Legislature also amended article 15 of the Executive Law to bring within the coverage and remedial procedures of said article the same “ publicly-assisted housing accommodations as were covered by the Civil Rights Law provisions as amended.

Under the provisions of the Civil Rights Law, a person aggrieved by the unlawful discrimination in housing accommodations would be obliged to proceed on his own in a court of competent jurisdiction to recover his damages or to obtain other appropriate relief. By virtue of the 1956 amendment to article 15 of the Executive Law, bringing the same housing accommodations within the coverage of said article, a person aggrieved may file his complaint with the commission and have the benefit of certain administrative procedures by and through the commission.

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New York State Commission Against Discrimination v. Pelham Hall Apartments, Inc., 10 Misc. 2d 334, 170 N.Y.S.2d 750, 1958 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4110 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1958).

10 Misc. 2d 334 (New York State Commission Against Discrimination v. Pelham Hall Apartments, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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