Money Judgment Against Defaulting Tenant Vacated

Facts: Landlord sued to evict two tenants from one apartment for nonpayment of rent. One tenant answered the petition; the other one defaulted. The court ruled for landlord and gave landlord both a judgment of possession and a money judgment against tenants in the amount of $3,000. The tenant who defaulted then asked the court to vacate the judgment against her. Court: Tenant wins. Landlord hadn't hand-delivered the court papers directly to the defaulting tenant. Instead, landlord's process server had hand-delivered the court papers to someone else in the apartment and then mailed them to defaulting tenant. Landlord was entitled to a judgment of possession against defaulting tenant, but a money judgment can't be issued against someone who doesn't get hand delivery of the court papers and then doesn't appear in court. So the money judgment against the defaulting tenant was vacated.

Eugenis v. Felipe: NYLJ, 3/14/01, p. 21, col. 6 (Civ. Ct. Kings; Silber, J)