Health Aide Who Manipulated Rent-Stabilized Tenant Can't Get Apartment

Landlord sued to evict the estate of deceased rent-stabilized tenant and remaining apartment occupant. Landlord claimed that tenant illegally sublet the apartment to occupant. Occupant claimed that he had succession rights as a nontraditional family member. Occupant had lived in the apartment with tenant for at least two years before she moved out or passed away. He moved into the apartment in 2009 and assisted tenant and her now deceased husband. Eventually, occupant and the prior tenant held joint bank accounts, and tenant named occupant sole beneficiary in her will, gave occupant power of attorney, and referred to him as her son in a number of documents.

But the Surrogate's Court had already ruled separately that tenant's will was a product of occupant's undue influence. So occupant couldn't prove the "emotional and financial commitment and interdependence" needed to establish a nontraditional family relationship. The Surrogate's Court also found that tenant was in a state of cognitive decline when she entered into joint accounts with occupant. And since occupant was a home health aide to elderly tenant, he was in a custodial position of trust and had a fiduciary duty to tenant. The Surrogate Court found that occupant manipulated tenant into changing her will to name him as sole beneficiary of her multimillion dollar estate.

The court found that occupant didn't prove he had a nontraditional family relationship with tenant.

Cornfeld v. Bhulyan: Index No. 53558/16, 2020 NY Slip Op 50112(U) (Civ. Ct. NY; 1/9/20; Stoller, J)