Landlord Can't Recover Second Apartment

(Decision submitted by Samuel Himmelstein of the Manhattan law firm of Himmelstein McConnell Gribben & Donoghue, attorneys for the tenant.) Landlord, consisting of three individuals, sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant to recover the apartment for owner occupancy of one of the landlords. Tenant claimed that another one of landlord's members had already recovered one apartment in the building for owner occupancy, and so landlord was barred from recovering a second apartment for the other member. Landlord argued that the prior lawsuit to recover the first apartment didn't count because that tenant had voluntarily surrendered possession after the case began. The court ruled against landlord. The Rent Stabilization Code states that only one of the individual owners of a building owned by joint tenancy, tenancy in common, or tenancy by the entirety can recover an apartment for owner occupancy. The recovery of the first apartment did count because it was done through a court-ordered agreement after an eviction case began.

Rudd v. Devine: NYLJ, p. 26, col. 4 (2/11/98) (Civ. Ct. NY; Ryp, J)