Settlement Didn't Require Tenants to Relocate by Specific Deadline

Landlord, a nonprofit entity providing protection and assistance to immigrants, sued to evict various month-to-month tenants in its building. Landlord and tenants signed a settlement agreement in court in March 2015, without a judgment. Tenants agreed to actively pursue relocation assistance while landlord held off seeking eviction if tenants cooperated. Landlord later claimed in October 2016 that 18 tenants had breached their promise to relocate within a reasonable time, in violation of the agreement. Tenants argued that the agreement didn’t state that failure to relocate was a breach. The court ruled against landlord. The agreement didn’t require relocation but merely cooperation with assistance to relocate. There was no definition of "reasonable time" in the agreement and what that was depended on facts and circumstances. Finding affordable housing in New York City is extraordinarily difficult and the duration of tenants’ efforts to relocate wasn’t unreasonable.

St. Joseph Immigrant Home Inc. v. Bulong: Index No. 77560/2014, NYLJ No. 1202774049499 (Civ. Ct. NY; 10/27/16; Stoller, J)