Pre-Trial Questioning Needed Concerning Succession Claim

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonprimary residence. Tenant's son claimed succession rights, even if tenant had moved out. The court granted the son's request to dismiss the case without a trial.

Landlord appealed, and the case was reopened. There were issues of fact that required a trial concerning the son's succession claim. Tenant signed a series of renewal leases extending her tenancy through March 31, 2017. But at the same time, she and her husband had also been tenants of a Low Income Housing Tax Credit apartment in Massachusetts since 2011. Tenant's lease for the Massachusetts apartment required her to "live and use" that unit as her "only place of residence." Tenant continued to renew her lease for the Massachusetts apartment after her husband died in 2015. Tenant admitted that she'd been absent from the Bronx apartment for "months at a time" between 2011 and 2015. So, whether the son lived in the apartment with tenant during the two-year period immediately preceding tenant's permanent vacatur was a question. The court also noted that the appellate courts of the First and Second Department had differing views regarding when a tenant permanently vacates an apartment. In any event, landlord showed "ample need" for pretrial questioning of tenant and her son.

Park Cent. 1 LLC v. Williams: Index Nos. 20-107/108, 2020 NY Slip Op 50765(U)(App. T. 1 Dept.; 6/25/20; Shulman, PJ, Cooper, Torres, JJ)