Rent-Stabilized Tenant with Disabled Son Can't Remain in Apartment

Landlord cooperative corporation sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant. An offering plan for co-op conversion of the building under an eviction plan was filed in December 2003. Landlord claimed that it was not required to renew tenant's lease when it expired on Oct. 31, 2007, because this was more than three years after the conversion plan was filed and tenant opted not to buy her apartment. Tenant claimed that her son was disabled, so she was exempt from eviction under GBL Section 352-eeee. The court ruled against tenant and found that landlord could go forward with eviction. GBL Section 352-eeee(2)(d) defined an eligible disabled person as either the nonpurchasing tenant or her spouse. The exemption didn't apply to tenant's son. Tenant also had previously raised this issue in a DHCR lease nonrenewal complaint. The DHCR ruled against tenant, and she didn't appeal. The attorney general also had ruled, in response to a complaint from tenant, that her son didn't qualify as a disabled person under the law, since he wasn't the tenant or tenant's spouse.

Broadway 95th St. LLC v. Ortega: NYLJ, 3/17/09, p. 27, col. 1 (Civ. Ct. NY; Elsner, J)