Home Health Aide Can't Get Apartment

Landlord sued to evict a home health aide from an apartment after rent-stabilized tenant died. The aide claimed succession rights to the apartment as a nontraditional family member. The court ruled against the aide without a trial. The aide appealed and lost. The aide presented no proof that would require a trial. Nothing she submitted to the lower court showed any emotional and financial commitment or interdependence with tenant. There was no commingling of finances, no joint ownership of anything, and no indication of sharing household or family expenses. Tenant paid the aide a salary to provide 24-hour-per-day care. A series of other aides had done so previously. Gifts of personal property and cash given to the aide by tenant's family after tenant died were consistent with recognition as a valued employee, not a family member.

First Sutton Assocs. v. Hoffman: NYLJ, 2/1/07, p. 31, col. 1 (App. T. 1 Dept.; McCooe, JP, Davis, Schoenfeld, JJ)