Landlord Not Present at Contempt Proceedings

HPD sued landlord to force him to make building repairs. Landlord agreed in a court stipulation to restore heat and hot water to the building. When this wasn't done, HPD asked the court to hold landlord in contempt. Landlord didn't appear at the contempt hearing. The court ruled for HPD and issued a warrant for landlord's arrest and imprisonment. Landlord appealed. Landlord believed that a related court case, for which he'd already spent time in jail, barred the court from proceeding against him in this action. And landlord was supposedly out of the country on the date of the contempt hearing because his father was dying. Landlord claimed that since he wasn't there, he couldn't be tried for criminal contempt. The court ruled against landlord. Landlord submitted no proof of why he couldn't make the hearing. And the contempt hearing was a civil, not criminal, proceeding---even though there were criminal penalties. HPD was required only to give landlord proper notice of the hearing, which it had done.

NYC Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development v. Outram: NYLJ, p. 23, col. 1 (2/8/94) (App. T. 2 Dept.; Kassoff, PJ, Scholnick, Patterson, JJ)