Landlord Can't Start Second Eviction Case

Landlord sent rent-stabilized tenant a lease nonrenewal notice in December 2008. The notice advised tenant that landlord needed tenant’s apartment for his own use. Landlord then sued to evict in April 2009. Tenant claimed that landlord didn’t deliver the court papers. The case was adjourned in court repeatedly without either a hearing or a ruling on tenant’s claim. Landlord then started a second owner-occupancy eviction proceeding in February 2010, based on the same 2008 nonrenewal notice. Tenant asked the court to dismiss the second case since the first case was still pending and was based on the same nonrenewal notice. The court ruled for tenant. The prior case was neither dismissed, discontinued, nor abandoned, so it hadn’t been terminated. And even if it had been terminated, landlord didn’t start the second case soon enough after the nonrenewal notice was delivered to use it as grounds for the second case.

Fileccia v. Neuwirth: NYLJ, 6/16/10, p. 27, col. 1 (Civ. Ct. Kings; Finkelstein, J)