Apartment Is Tenant's Primary Residence

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonprimary residence. The court ruled for tenant after a trial and dismissed the case. Landlord appealed and lost. While some documents identified the apartment as tenant's residence, and others listed a house in Connecticut that tenant jointly owned with his former wife, the court's decision was based largely on its assessment of testimony by tenant and other witnesses about tenant's day-to-day activities. And while landlord might have been entitled to sanctions against tenant for failing to comply with pretrial questioning, landlord waited too long to ask the court to impose sanctions by making the request during, instead of prior to, the trial.

Dezer Properties 4, LLC v. Brody: 2010 WL 3155915, 2010 N.Y. Slip Op. 20313 (App. T. 1 Dept.; McKeon, PJ, Schoenfeld, J.; 8/9/10)