Landlord Can Evict Tenant After Extensive Failure to Pay Rent Owed

(Decision submitted by Paul Gruber, Esq. of the Manhattan law firm of Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Nahins & Goidel, P.C., who represented the landlord.)

Landlord sued to evict tenant in 2012 for nonpayment of rent. The court ruled for landlord based on tenant’s default, and issued an eviction warrant. During the next 15 months, tenant asked the court many times to stay the execution of the eviction warrant and extend her time to pay the back rent owed many times. At the time of tenant’s ninth request for delay, tenant owed over $6,000 and agreed to pay by a certain date with no default. The court later granted tenant a tenth stay of execution after she paid only $688 of an agreed $2,060 payment. Landlord appealed and won. Strict enforcement of a settlement agreement between landlord and tenant was warranted. Tenant had a lengthy history of rent defaults in this proceeding, not to mention 28 prior nonpayment proceedings. 

191 St. Assoc. LLC v. Cruz: 2016 NY Slip Op 50116(U) (App T. 1 Dept.; 2/5/16; Shulman, JP, Hunter Jr., Ling-Cohan [dissenting], JJ)