Tenant Dealing Drugs from Apartment

Landlord sued to evict tenant for dealing drugs from her apartment. Landlord objected to letting tenant's psychiatrist testify in her defense. Tenant claimed she was mentally ill. The court ruled that a psychiatric condition wasn't a defense to the eviction case for drug dealing because, in this case, tenant herself was dealing drugs. A psychiatric defense applies only if tenant claims that others were dealing drugs from her apartment and she didn't have the mental capacity to know of or agree to this drug dealing. But testimony about tenant's mental health was relevant to whether the court should delay eviction. The court ruled for landlord and issued an eviction warrant, but delayed execution of the warrant for two months based on tenant's psychiatric condition.

Future Tenth Assocs., L.P. v. Roche: NYLJ, p. 29, col. 6 (10/20/99) (Civ. Ct. NY; Ling-Cohan, J)