Landlord Can't Conduct Pretrial Questioning of Tenant's Husband

(Decision submitted by Samuel J. Himmelstein of the Manhattan law firm of Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben & Donoghue, attorneys for the tenant.) Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonprimary residence. Landlord claimed that tenant lived primarily with her husband in New Jersey. The court granted landlord's request to conduct pretrial questioning of tenant. After doing so, landlord asked the court for permission to conduct pretrial questioning of tenant's husband to determine the amount of time tenant spent in New Jersey. The court ruled against landlord. Landlord should have asked for permission to question tenant's husband at the same time it asked for permission to question tenant. Also, landlord didn't submit with its new request a copy of the transcript of the questioning of tenant. So the court couldn't tell if further questioning was needed. Tenant had already answered questions about how much time she spent in New Jersey.

119 W. 69th St., LLC v. Rabban: Index No. 107731/99 (Civ. Ct. NY 6/22/01; Alpert, J) [4-pg. doc.]