Triboro Parking, Inc. v. Blomeier

203 Misc. 202, 118 N.Y.S.2d 831, 1953 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1483
CourtCity of New York Municipal Court
DecidedJanuary 30, 1953
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 203 Misc. 202 (Triboro Parking, Inc. v. Blomeier) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering City of New York Municipal Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Triboro Parking, Inc. v. Blomeier, 203 Misc. 202, 118 N.Y.S.2d 831, 1953 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1483 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1953).

Opinion

Starke, J.

In this holdover summary proceeding the landlord seeks the eviction of the tenant from only the ground floor (the business portion) of an entire building occupied by the tenant, and predicates this proceeding entirely upon subdivision (g) of section 8 of the Business Rent Law (L. 1945, ch. 314, as amd.).

It is conceded that the tenant was a statutory tenant under an expired lease prior to signing a lease on April 24,1950 (par. 26 describes the tenant as a statutory tenant); that the lease provided for one rental for the entire building which consists of a drug store on the ground floor and two upper floors used by the tenant and his family as dwelling space; that the lease was for two years, from April 1, 1950, to March 31, 1952, and has now expired.

The landlord maintains (par. 15 of the petition) that, insofar as the business portion is concerned, the tenant has lost the protection of the emergency rent laws. The landlord bases this proceeding on paragraph 26 in the lease and presents the sole argument that when the tenant signed the lease he also signed an agreement to vacate at the expiration of the lease; that the tenant signed this lease at a time when he was a statutory tenant under an expired lease, and that the proceeding therefore comes within the purview of the first portion of subdivision (g), which provides: “ The tenant, being in possession under an expired lease or tenancy, or as a monthly or statutory tenant, agrees in writing to terminate his occupancy on a date certain in the future ”.

[204]*204The tenant questions the effectiveness of the lease, contending, among other things, that the lease is based upon an invalid Supreme Court order; that the landlord has never taken steps to validate said Supreme Court order but instead has attempted in effect to modify or amend the order by applying to the Temporary State Housing Bent Commission instead of to the Supreme Court; that even if the lease is effective, subdivision (g) is not retroactive and is not binding upon a statutory tenant who executed a lease, containing an agreement to vacate, prior to March 31,1951 (the date the statute was amended by adding the words “ statutory tenant ”); that the provisions of the first portion of subdivision (g) are inapplicable, in that upon the execution of the lease on April 24, 1950, a new tenancy was immediately created and that the tenant became a tenant under an unexpired lease at the time the agreement to vacate became effective; that, therefore, the second portion of subdivision (g) is applicable, and that the landlord fails to come within the requirements thereof since the agreement to vacate was not executed three months after the commencement of the term but was in the lease itself and became effective simultaneously therewith.

The landlord herein is the lessee of the premises under a twenty-one-year lease which commenced on October 1, 1949. Prior thereto, and for many years, the tenant and his family have been in occupancy of the entire building, under an agreement whereby one rental was paid for the entire building, comprising both business property and dwelling space. After the present landlord became the lessee of the premises, and tenant’s immediate landlord, the tenant continued to pay rent under the same arrangement.

As the result of a proceeding brought by the landlord in the Supreme Court, in which the court definitely was not apprised of the fact that the premises involved comprised both business and residential space, an order was signed on April 21, 1950, fixing an increased rent of $187.50 per month for the entire building. Of course, it is elemental that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to either fix or increase a rental upon the entire premises, which included two floors of residential space, concededly occupied only for dwelling space by the tenant’s family. There is grave doubt as to whether such an order has any validity. If the lease is void from its inception, the entire lease including the clause containing the agreement to vacate falls, and the tenant still remains a statutory tenant today.

[205]*205In any event, based upon the said Supreme Court order, the landlord and tenant herein executed on April 24,1950, a written Gilsey form lease, wherein the landlord leased to the tenant the entire building and premises ” at a rental of $2,250 per annum. This rental was in excess of any rent theretofore paid by the tenant. The lease provided that the premises were to be used and occupied by the tenant ‘ ‘ for the purpose presently used by him.” Nowhere in the lease is there any indication as to what portion of the rent is to be allocated to business space or dwelling space.

The said lease provides in paragraph two thereof, that at the end or other expiration of the term the tenant shall deliver up the demised premises in good order or condition. Paragraph 26 of the said lease contained the following typewritten provision: “ The tenant herein agrees to vacate the premises at the termination date herein stated; that he is now in possession of the premises; that there is no lease outstanding and in effect as of the date of this agreement; that he is a statutory tenant and that this agreement is made in consideration of the execution of this lease.”

After the expiration date of the lease on March 31, 1952, the landlord commenced a summary proceeding to evict the tenant from the entire premises by virtue of subdivision (g). The landlord subsequently discontinued this proceeding upon the tenant interposing a defense, among others, that the premises constituted both dwelling and business space.

Thereafter, on July 23, 1952, the landlord filed a registration statement with the Temporary State Housing Rent Commission fixing the rent for the dwelling space at $60 per month. No steps have ever been taken in the Supreme Court to properly fix the rent for the business space, nor to reform, modify or amend the prior Supreme Court order.

The landlord, when it commenced the proceedings in the Supreme Court to fix the rental upon the entire building, must have done so upon the theory that the building constituted business space in its entirety. Upon that basis the landlord obtained an increased rent upon the entire premises. The landlord, under authority of that order, entered into an alleged lease at the increased rent for a period of two years, and received the benefit of the increased rental during that period. Is not the landlord estopped at this late date from bringing a proceeding to evict the tenant from that portion of the premises which it now admits is the only business space in [206]*206the entire premises, when the whole theory of its application to the Supreme Court and the fixation of the rental of $187.50 per month in the lease of April 24, 1950, was that the entire building constituted business property? An examination of the type of lease, which is a business form, and of the purpose clause is interesting upon this subject. It would not be amiss at this time to point out that if the entire building were business space, the landlord would not be permitted to evict from only a portion of the premises in any event. (Morse & Grossman v. Acker & Co., 297 N. Y. 304; Kaufman & Sons Saddlery Co. v. Miller, 298 N. Y.

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Related

Hartford v. Regal Shoe Store No. 162, Inc.
20 Misc. 2d 1055 (City of New York Municipal Court, 1959)
Olympic Assets, Inc. v. Frederic H. Hatch & Co.
208 Misc. 12 (City of New York Municipal Court, 1955)
Zebu Realty Corp. v. Great Penny Store Inc.
208 Misc. 8 (City of New York Municipal Court, 1955)
Gaulang Realty Co. v. Dyer
207 Misc. 480 (City of New York Municipal Court, 1954)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
203 Misc. 202, 118 N.Y.S.2d 831, 1953 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/triboro-parking-inc-v-blomeier-nynyccityct-1953.