Starling Realty Corp. v. State

174 Misc. 375, 20 N.Y.S.2d 878, 1940 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1869
CourtNew York Court of Claims
DecidedJune 24, 1940
DocketClaim No. 25342
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 174 Misc. 375 (Starling Realty Corp. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Starling Realty Corp. v. State, 174 Misc. 375, 20 N.Y.S.2d 878, 1940 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1869 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1940).

Opinion

Murphy, J.

In 1937 the claimant Starling Realty Corporation was the owner of an office building on Spring street in the village of Ossining, N. Y. Sometime prior to October in that year, the State sought to lease a portion of the building for the use of the State Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance. In order to make the building adaptable to such use, certain structural [376]*376alterations were necessary; they were made by the claimant; they involved an expenditure of about $1,200.

After these alterations were made, and on October 11, 1937, with due formality, a lease in writing was made and executed between the claimant and the State for about 1,300 square feet of floor space in the building. The term of the lease was for a period of three years commencing on November 15, 1937, and ending on November 14, 1940. The annual rent reserved was $2,200, payable in equal monthly sums of $183.33 at the office of the claimant.

Paragraph 17 of the lease created a limitation on the term of the lease. It provided: The contract of the State hereunder shall be deemed executory only to the extent of moneys available to the Superintendent of Public Works for the leasing of said premises and that no liability shall be incurred by the State beyond the moneys available for such purpose.”

Under this lease the State entered into possession of the premises in November, 1937, and continued in occupation thereof until about July 31, 1938, when, after a notice continued in a letter dated June 29, 1938, it vacated, and notwithstanding reasonable effort thereafter made by the claimant to relet the premises, they were idle at the time of the filing of this claim, which is filed for the sum of $733.33, being rent claimed to be due under the terms of the lease for the months of August, September, October and November, 1938.

The clause contained in the lease, That the contract of the State thereunder shall be deemed executory only to the extent of moneys available and no liability shall be incurred by the State beyond the moneys available for the purpose,” was written in the lease by command of the statute, section 3, subdivision 7, of the Public Buildings Law, which required that each such lease executed by the State should contain such a clause.

That this clause created a condition precedent and a limitation upon the term does not seem to be questioned. The complaint of the claimant appears to be that there was not an honest exercise of the condition, that moneys were in fact available for the rent of the premises, that the cancellation of the lease was not in good faith and that it was prompted by ulterior motive.

From these claims two questions are presented for examination: One, the question as to whether or not moneys were in fact available, and, two, the conduct of the State in terminating the lease.

These claims make necessary a short review of the means and manner by which the funds are created and then a consideration of the conduct of the State in canceling the lease.

[377]*377To a ’correct solution of the claim that moneys were in fact available, the Federal Social Security Act and the State Unemployment Insurance Law must be read and considered together and likewise consideration must be given to the setup and agreements made between the Federal and the State governments for the operation and administration of these acts.

It may be helpful to the discussion to point out that prior to the enactment of the United States Social Security Act, the New York State Employment Service received from the Legislature annually between $300,000 and $320,000, and under the WagnerPeyser Act, the New York State Employment Service received an equal sum, so that the New York State Employment Service had available for its purposes about $600,000.

The Social Security Act appropriated the sum of $49,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1939, and for each fiscal year thereafter $80,000,000 to be used as in the act provided (U. S. Code, tit. 42, § 501).

Section 502 of the act provides for payments to States and computation of amounts. It reads:

“ (a) The Board shall from time to time certify to the Secretary of the Treasury for payment to each State which has an unemployment compensation law approved by the Board under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, such amounts as the Board determines to be necessary for the proper and efficient administration of such law during the fiscal year for which such payment is to be made. The Board’s determination shall be based on (1) the population of the State; (2) an estimate of the number of persons covered by the State law and of the cost of proper and efficient administration of such law; and (3) such other factors as the Board finds relevant.”

Section 503 of the act specifies causes for stopping payments and paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) thereof specifies as a cause, That such State is failing to afford reasonable cooperation with every agency of the United States charged with the administration of any -unemployment insurance law.”

The provisions of the State Unemployment Insurance Law (Labor Law, §§ 500-539) which are pertinent and which are related to the provisions of the Social Security Act above referred to, are to be found in section 514, which creates an unemployment insurance fund; subdivision 2 of section 518, which gives the State Industrial Commissioner power to establish and maintain as many State employment offices as he deems necessary; subdivision 5 of the same section, that gives him power to divide the State into such number of employment districts as he finds necessary and [378]*378which carries a direction that he shall maintain a district office in each of the districts; section 520, which provides for the administration of the fund; section 525, which provides for the expenses of administration, and section 529, which defines the extent of the liability of the State and in this respect provides: “The State of New York undertakes the administration of such fund without any liability on the part of the State beyond the amount of moneys received through allotment from the Federal Social Security Board or other Federal agency.”

The Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance was created for the purpose of administering the Unemployment Insurance Law. By a lump sum appropriation, the Legislature of 1938, by chapter 20 of the Laws of that year, appropriated the sum of $304,916 for use by that Division for expenses of maintenance and operation including personal service for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1938, and the Federal government on the basis provided in section 502 of the Social Security Act granted to the State for use in the administration of the law between $5,500,000 and $6,000,000.

The appropriation made by the State was made under an agreement made between the State and Federal government in which the State agreed to turn over to the Federal Social Security Board the sum appropriated by the State and likewise the grant made by the Federal government to the State, for use in the administration of the law and in consideration thereof the Federal Social Security Board agreed to furnish all the funds necessary to operate the combined State Employment Service and the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation for personal service, rent and equipment.

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Bluebook (online)
174 Misc. 375, 20 N.Y.S.2d 878, 1940 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1869, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/starling-realty-corp-v-state-nyclaimsct-1940.