Landlord sued to evict tenant. Tenant’s attorney appeared in court on tenant’s behalf and signed a settlement agreement with landlord. Tenant later asked the court to vacate the agreement, claiming that her attorney wasn’t authorized to enter into the stipulation. The court and appeals court ruled against tenant. Even if tenant’s attorney lacked real authority to sign the stipulation, she appeared to have authority to do so and landlord reasonably relied upon that appearance of authority. Tenant was actively represented by her attorney in the court case and admitted that she spoke with her attorney over the phone while the attorney was in court negotiating the settlement agreement. Tenant also had made two separate use and occupancy payments agreed to under the terms of the stipulation. And there was no showing of any fraud, mistake, or other reason to void the agreement. Although tenant claimed that her apartment had been improperly deregulated before she moved in, the DHCR already had rejected that claim.
7 East 75 LLC v. Bekuraidze: 45 Misc.3d 127(A), 2014 NY Slip Op. 51481(U) (App. T. 1 Dept.; 10/10/14; Shulman, JP, Hunter Jr., Ling-Cohan, JJ)
