Tenant Gets Attorney Fees Where Landlord Produced Contrary Lease Rider Too Late

Landlord sued to evict tenant for creating a nuisance. The court ruled against landlord and set the case down for a hearing months later on the amount of attorney's fees to be granted to tenant under the terms of tenant's lease. Seven months' later, after the hearing on attorney's fees had commenced, landlord produced for the first time a lease rider that restricted tenant's right to recover attorney's fees to nonpayment proceedings only. Landlord moved to renew and reargue. The court ruled for landlord, but tenant appealed and won. Landlord didn't offer a reasonable justification for its failure to submit the lease rider in opposition to tenant's motion for attorney's fees, and didn't explain its delay in producing the lease rider. So landlord's motion should have been denied. But the trial court properly denied tenant's request for sanctions against landlord, since its claim wasn't frivolous.

145 East 16th Street LLC v. Spencer: 63 Misc.3d 160(A), 2019 NY Slip Op 50885(U)