Landlord's New Rent Demand Wasn't Barred by Settlement of Prior Case

(Decision submitted by Linda S. Burton of the Lynbrook law firm of Burton & Burton, P.C., who represented the landlord.)

Landlord, a Mitchell-Lama cooperative, sued to evict tenant for nonpayment of rent. Tenant asked the court to dismiss the case, claiming that landlord's rent demand was defective. Tenant disputed what rent was due after discontinuance of a prior nonpayment proceeding.

The court ruled against tenant. Tenant claimed that the settlement stipulation in the prior case barred landlord from collecting any rents that were the subject of the prior case, through December 2018. But that stipulation discontinued the prior case "without prejudice." And the document's plain terms specifically required payment of rent for specific periods and landlord otherwise reserved its rights to rents due after October 2018. The case was set down for a court appearance on June 17, 2020, subject to administrative adjournment if the COVID-19 public health crisis continued to impact court operations at that time.

Rochdale Village Inc. v. Lomax: Index No. 66396/19, 2020 NY Slip Op 50443(U)(Civ. Ct. Queens; 4/17/20; Guthrie, J)