Landlord Bound by Prior Court Ruling

Landlord sued to evict 16 Jesuit priests from rent-stabilized apartments for nonprimary residence. Landlord showed that the lease for the apartments was with the corporate association of the priests and argued that, by law, a corporation can't have a primary residence. The court ruled against landlord. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord had previously sued to evict the priests in 1988. In the prior case, the court ruled against landlord. Landlord didn't appeal, but signed a settlement agreement allowing the individual priests who were living there at the time to remain. These same priests still lived in the apartments. So landlord couldn't start a new primary residence case against the same tenants. And since tenant corporation was renewing its lease for the same priests, the rule barring renewal as a primary residence by a corporate tenant for an unnamed tenant didn't apply.

220 W. 98 Realty, LLC v. The N.Y. Province of the Society of Jesus: NYLJ, 11/6/00, p. 24, col. 6 (App. T.1 Dept.; McCooe, JP, Davis, Gangel-Jacob, JJ)