Landlord Didn't Prove Tenant Sublet Without Consent

Yonkers landlord, a cooperative corporation, sued to evict tenant shareholder for unauthorized subletting, in violation of tenant's proprietary lease. Tenant claimed that the board of directors had illegally adopted a resolution that amended the sublet provisions and that landlord had waived these provisions for tenant. Landlord claimed that the board had lawfully adopted a resolution that drastically changed the building's prior sublet policy and that tenant had unsuccessfully challenged the board's action in State Supreme Court. Under the board's new rules, a tenant shareholder couldn't sublet unless he had lived in the building for the three prior years. Tenant hadn't lived in his apartment for more than 10 years. The court ruled for landlord without a trial. Tenant appealed and won. The lower court had ruled for landlord based solely on copies of documents submitted with a written statement by landlord's attorney, who had no personal knowledge about the facts or documents. Therefore, landlord failed to prove the contents of the current proprietary lease in effect between landlord and its shareholder tenants, that it had terminated tenant's lease properly, or that the sublease in place when tenant supposedly breached the proprietary lease wasn't approved by the board.

Hudson Hills Tenant Corp. v. Stovel: 2012 NY Slip Op 22346, 2012 WL 5974099 (App. T. 9&10; 11/26/12; Nicolai, PJ, Iannacci, LaSalle, JJ)