Court Won't Consolidate Tenants' Lead Paint Claim with Nonpayment Proceeding

Tenants sued landlord, claiming that their child had been poisoned by lead paint found in their apartment. While the case was pending, landlord asked the court to take a separate, rent nonpayment proceeding pending in housing court by landlord against tenants, and combine it with tenant's case in State Supreme Court.

The court ruled against landlord, who appealed and lost. The court had discretion to consolidate actions involving common questions of law or fact. While there were some overlapping facts concerning lead paint in each of these two cases, the majority of time during which tenants failed to pay their rent in the other case occurred in the two-year period after the lead paint abatement when the case was taken off the calendar to make further unexplained repairs. The lower court properly denied consolidation since the two cases were at markedly different procedural stages. Consolidation would result in undue delay in the resolution of either case.

L.B. v. Stahl York Ave. Co.: 2020 NY Slip Op 06355, App. No. 12273N, Case No. 2020-01625 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 11/5/20; Gische, JP, Webber, Gonzalez, Scarpulla, JJ)