NYCHA Can Evict Tenant for Son's Illegal Drug Activity

June 11, 2013

LVT Number: #24838

Tenant filed an Article 78 appeal of NYCHA's decision to terminate her tenancy for nondesirability. NYCHA had ruled that tenant violated her lease and a prior stipulation that barred her son from living in her apartment. Tenant had asked her son to move back in to help her while she was getting treatment for breast cancer. But NYCHA had found that tenant already was seriously ill when she agreed to exclude her son from the apartment and the son's illegal drug activities presented a potential danger to the safety and welfare of other tenants.

Tenant filed an Article 78 appeal of NYCHA's decision to terminate her tenancy for nondesirability. NYCHA had ruled that tenant violated her lease and a prior stipulation that barred her son from living in her apartment. Tenant had asked her son to move back in to help her while she was getting treatment for breast cancer. But NYCHA had found that tenant already was seriously ill when she agreed to exclude her son from the apartment and the son's illegal drug activities presented a potential danger to the safety and welfare of other tenants. The court ruled for tenant, but NYCHA appealed and won. The penalty imposed by NYCHA against tenant was not so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the court's sense of fairness.

Ottley v. NYCHA: 964 NYS2d 228, 2013 NY Slip Op 03098 (App. Div. 2 Dept.; 5/1/13; Dillon, JP, Balkin, Austin, Cohen, JJ)

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