Tenant Can't Raise Claim, Already Decided, After HSTPA Enacted

Tenant sued landlord for rent overcharge on July 25, 2019. Landlord argued that a court had dismissed tenant's prior rent overcharge claim in September 2018 and that tenant hadn't appealed that decision. Landlord said that the doctrine of collateral estoppel therefore barred tenant from raising the same claim in a new case. Landlord also argued that HSTPA couldn't be applied retroactively to allow tenant to bring the new action because tenant's overcharge claim wasn't "pending" on June 14, 2019. Tenant argued that his prior overcharge case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, not on the merits and, therefore, his overcharge claim was still pending from before.

The court ruled against tenant. The claims asserted in tenant's prior court complaint were identical to the new claims, and tenant had a full and fair opportunity to contest the prior court's decision but failed to do so. A judgment issued in a prior action bars parties from relitigating issues that were or could have been raised in that action. Since tenant neither appealed nor moved to renew his claim in the prior court action, he couldn't relitigate those claims in the new complaint. And the prior action wasn't pending when HSTPA was enacted. 

Nettles v. Westman Realty Co.: Index No. 157349/2019, 2020 NY Slip Op 31899(U)(Sup. Ct. NY; 6/18/20; Perry, J)