Co-op Shareholder Tenant Gets 100 Percent Rent Abatement for Smoke Infiltration

Co-op shareholder tenant sued co-op corporation for failing to remedy a secondhand smoke condition in her apartment. She claimed that the smoke caused her to suffer tightness in her chest, coughing, headaches, and watery eyes. Landlord asked the court to dismiss the case, but the court refused and found that there were questions of fact requiring a trial. The trial court later ruled for tenant. Tenant and other witnesses credibly testified that significant cigarette smoke permeated and polluted tenant’s apartment, and tenant’s apartment renovations didn’t cause the smoke infiltration. The shareholder of a co-op apartment that couldn’t be safely inhabited was entitled to a 100 percent rent abatement, which the court awarded tenant retroactive to June 2007. Landlord pointed out that tenant didn’t occupy the apartment during that time, but the court found that this didn’t matter.

Reinhard v. Connaught Tower Corp.: Index No. 602503/2008, NYLJ No. 102751009993 (Sup. Ct. NY; 1/25/16; Engoron, J)