Federal Appeals Court Rejects Landlords' Challenge to New NY Eviction Moratorium Law

A group of landlords challenged New York's COVID Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act (CEEFPA) in federal court. The lower court ruled against plaintiff-landlords, who then filed an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. While the appeal was pending, the U.S. Supreme Court granted plaintiff's application for injunctive relief pending outcome of the appeal, to stop enforcement of Part A of CEEFPA, which precluded a landlord from contesting a tenant's self-certified Hardship Declaration. The SCOTUS ruled in August 2021 that the CEEFPA provision violated the U.S. Constitution's due process clause (see LVT #31566). 

In September 2021, the Second Circuit denied landlords' appeal of their CEEFPA challenge, as well as their additional challenge to the new residential eviction moratorium enacted by NY law after the old moratorium statute expired on Aug. 31, 2021. The new law gave landlords the opportunity to raise good faith objections to tenant Hardship Declarations in court proceedings that would otherwise be delayed while the eviction moratorium remained in effect, now through Jan. 15, 2022. The Second Circuit dismissed landlords' due process claims as moot in light of NY's new eviction moratorium law, and found that it lacked jurisdiction to enjoin enforcement of the new state law. But the court found the mootness of landlords' due process claims was attributable to the legal framework and said that landlords might wish to amend their complaint to demonstrate "that the repealed statute retains some force or to attack the newly enacted legislation." The Second Circuit sent the case back to federal District Court, and also declined to rule on landlord's additional First Amendment and vagueness challenges to the new NY law.

Chrysafis v. Marks: Dkt. No. 21-1493, NYLJ No. 1633007741 (2d Cir. Ct. App.; 9/29/21; Newman, CJ)