Landlord Delivered Court Papers to Tenant's Mother's Apartment
LVT Number: 16188
Landlord sued former tenant for back rent after tenant moved out. Landlord delivered court papers to tenant's mother's apartment in New York City and to tenant's mother's house in Connecticut. Tenant claimed improper delivery of the court papers because she didn't live with her mother. Tenant said that she didn't have a permanent address, although she had mail delivered to her mother's Connecticut house. The court found that delivery to tenant's mother's New York apartment was improper because there was no proof that tenant lived there. Delivery of the papers to tenant's mother's house was also improper because even if tenant lived there, no follow-up mail copy of the court papers was sent there. However, the court treated landlord's attempted delivery of the court papers as a request for a court-ordered alternative delivery method and deemed that landlord properly delivered the court papers using this method. Tenant appealed and won. Landlord didn't properly deliver the papers. And landlord hadn't asked the court for approval of an alternative delivery method. So the court shouldn't have deemed that delivery was properly made.
Decarvalhosa v. Adler: NYLJ, 10/31/02, p. 18, col. 1 (App. Div.1 Dept.; Williams, PJ, Nardelli, Mazzarelli, Marlow, Gonzalez, JJ)