Park Holding Co. v. Emicke

167 Misc. 2d 162, 634 N.Y.S.2d 910, 1995 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 571
CourtCivil Court of the City of New York
DecidedJuly 19, 1995
StatusPublished

This text of 167 Misc. 2d 162 (Park Holding Co. v. Emicke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Civil Court of the City of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Park Holding Co. v. Emicke, 167 Misc. 2d 162, 634 N.Y.S.2d 910, 1995 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 571 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Joan A. Madden, J.

Petitioner commenced this summary holdover proceeding on the ground that respondents violated their lease by harboring a dog. Petitioner moves for an order granting summary judgment, granting petitioner a hearing to determine the amount of use and occupancy and reasonable attorney’s fees due petitioner, and dismissing and/or severing the defenses and counterclaims set forth in respondent’s answer. Respondent cross-moves for judgment on the pleadings and/or summary judgment, or in the alternative granting a stay pending a hearing and determination by the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) on the harassment complaint pending against petitioner, and an award of costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees. In a separate motion, respondent moves to dismiss the proceeding based on petitioner’s failure to comply with a demand for a bill of particulars. These motions are consolidated for the purpose of disposition.

THE FACTS

The essential facts are not in dispute. Respondents are rent-stabilized tenants at 500 East 85th Street, apartment 19D, New York, New York, pursuant to a written lease. They moved into the apartment in May 1985, and in 1987 they became the owners of a Great Dane named Xam. Petitioner alleges, through an affidavit of its superintendent, that it first learned of the dog in 1988. In October 1994 Xam died, and on December 7, 1994 the respondents obtained a new puppy, Xam II (Twoie). Two days later, by letter dated December 9, 1994, petitioner’s management advised respondents to remove the puppy, as they were in violation of the lease. On January 5, 1995, petitioner served respondents with a notice to cure. Respondents kept Twoie and petitioner served a notice of termination on January 23, 1995. This holdover proceeding was commenced by service of a notice of petition and petition on February 14, 1995. Prior to the commencement of this proceeding, respondents, on February 9, 1995, filed, and DHCR accepted, a harassment [164]*164complaint alleging, inter alia, that this eviction is retaliatory as respondent Eimicke was "responsible for * * * the development and passage of the laws on succession for rent stabilized apartments” (affidavit of William B. Eimicke, Mar. 19, 1995, para 7). In January 1995, shortly after the November 1994 election, the same month petitioner notified respondents to remove the puppy, respondent Eimicke lost his job as the Director of Housing and Commissioner of the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, which he held under former Governor Cuomo.

DISCUSSION

The residential lease specifically prohibits respondents from harboring a dog and respondents admit they violated that section of the lease.1 Respondents maintain, however, that the landlord waived the no pet provision pursuant to section 27-2009.1 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York (Pet Law). Under the Pet Law, if the landlord fails to object to an animal within three months after it obtains knowledge of the pet, the no pet provision in the lease is deemed waived.2

[165]*165Petitioner initially argues the respondents misled the superintendent into believing that Xam did not live in the apartment, and that respondents should not be allowed to profit from their misrepresentations. The superintendent states that he spoke to respondent Eimicke when the dog was first observed in 1988, and he was told the dog was housed in respondents’ country house, where respondents spent most of their time. Respondents vehemently deny making any such statement, and petitioner argues that such a factual dispute precludes respondents’ summary judgment motion. However, even if the court were to accept the superintendent’s statements as true, he further acknowledges that "over the subsequent months, it became apparent that the dog was more than occasionally present in the building.” (Affidavit of Istvan Polyak, Mar. 15, 1995, para 6.) Moreover, petitioner’s notice, dated January 5, 1995, reads: "[t]his dog that you are harboring in your apartment has only recently come into the apartment. Prior to that, you had harbored a different dog in your apartment. However, as to the new dog, you neither sought nor obtained the landlord’s permission to harbor and/or keep that dog in your apartment.” Thus, in its notice, petitioner acknowledged it knew Xam lived in respondents’ apartment. Furthermore, it is undisputed that petitioner did not commence proceedings to remove Xam during the approximate eight-year period it was harbored in the apartment.

Petitioner’s argument that respondents’ alleged misrepresentations led it to believe the dog did not live in their apartment for an initial period of time, neither explains nor excuses petitioner’s failure to take any action when it became clear to petitioner that the dog in fact lived in their apartment. Accordingly, as a matter of law, pursuant to section 27-2009.1 of the Administrative Code, this court finds that petitioner waived the no pet provision as to Xam, based on petitioner’s admission it had knowledge that respondents harbored Xam in their apartment for more than three months, and its failure to corn[166]*166menee a summary proceeding or action.3 (Compare, Park Holding Co. v Lavigne, 130 Misc 2d 396 [App Term, 1st Dept 1985] [the no pet provision in the lease was not waived even though petitioner failed to commence a timely summary proceeding due to protracted settlement negotiations with the tenant, where petitioner objected to pet almost immediately, and served a notice to cure and notice of termination within the three-month period].)

Petitioner further argues that even if it did not timely object to Xam, it has not waived its right to object to Twoie, asserting that the waiver under the Pet Law is specific to the pet in question and the landlord has a three-month period to object to each successive pet (citing Park Holding Co. v Tzeses, Civ Ct, NY County 1988, Klein, J., affd NYLJ, Apr. 13, 1989, at 22, col 6 [App Term, 1st Dept]; Park Holding Co. v Diamond, NYLJ, Dec. 21, 1994, at 23, col 1 [Civ Ct, NY County, Strauss, J.]). Petitioner’s reliance on these two decisions is misplaced, as each is factually distinguishable from the case at bar. In Park Holding Co. v Tzeses, the Appellate Term, in affirming the dismissal of the petition as untimely, did not address the statement in the trial court’s decision upon which petitioner relies, i.e., that a landlord could object to each successive pet. Thus, the statement, which is the critical issue herein, remains dicta. Similarly, the decision in Park Holding v Diamond (supra) is not on point. In Park Holding, the question in issue was whether a waiver of a no pet clause carried over to a new lease between the parties involving a new apartment and a new pet. While the decision held the waiver was not binding upon a separate and distinct tenancy between the parties, it is factually and legally distinguishable from the facts herein, which involve the same apartment and lease provisions.

Respondents rely upon McCullum v Brotman (NYLJ, May 11,1988, at 14, col 4 [Civ Ct, NY County, Spires, J.]) and Brown v Johnson (139 Misc 2d 195 [Civ Ct, NY County 1988]) to support their position. Based on the decisions therein, respondents argue that once a landlord fails to object to a pet, the no pet lease provision is waived as to future pets, on the grounds that there is no language in the Pet Law which states that the "no

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Boston Concessions Group, Inc. v. Criterion Center Corp.
200 A.D.2d 543 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1994)
Park Holding Co. v. Lavigne
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Brown v. Johnson
139 Misc. 2d 195 (Civil Court of the City of New York, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
167 Misc. 2d 162, 634 N.Y.S.2d 910, 1995 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 571, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/park-holding-co-v-emicke-nycivct-1995.