Tenant Hid Two Cats in Apartment

(Decision submitted by Sabrina B. Kraus of the Manhattan law firm of Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Schwartz & Nahins, PC, attorneys for the landlord.) Landlord sued to evict tenant for keeping two cats, in violation of her lease. The court ruled for tenant after a trial based on waiver, finding that tenant openly kept the cats and that prior landlord knew about them. Landlord later asked to reargue the case based on an appeals court decision in a similar case. The court granted permission to reargue and ruled for landlord. A review of the trial transcript showed that tenant didn't testify with much certainty regarding claimed apartment visits by prior landlord. And an appeals court recently ruled that walking a small dog outside a building didn't constitute keeping the pet openly and triggering a waiver by landlord. Since the cats were kept inside the apartment, and there was insufficient proof that prior landlord knew about them, they couldn't be found to have been kept openly. The court awarded a judgment of possession to landlord, but gave tenant two weeks to correct the lease violation by getting rid of the cats.

184 West 10th Corp. v. Marvits: Index No. 54949/05 (Civ. Ct. NY 4/13/06; Cavallo, J) [2-pg. doc.]