Tenant Kept Rotting Food in Apartment

Landlord sued to evict tenant for creating a nuisance. Landlord claimed that tenant caused foul odors to come from her apartment. The court ruled against landlord, finding that occasional odors were part of city apartment life. Landlord appealed and won. Witnesses from the building had testified that these weren't unavoidable odors. Tenant kept rotting food in the apartment. Two firefighters also testified that they visited tenant's apartment a month before the trial and found a shocking stench. The firefighters also testified that tenant's apartment was dangerously cluttered with furnishings, boxes, and debris, and infested with cockroaches. Although the trial court had directed tenant simply to remove the clutter, landlord had filed a prior eviction action years earlier on the same grounds. In that case, the court went to great lengths to help tenant cure the conditions. Clearly, the problem hadn't been solved and can't be solved by mere instruction from the court.

Zipper v. Haroldon Court Condominium: NYLJ, 4/19/07, p. 29, col. 2 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; Saxe, JP, Sullivan, Williams, Sweeny, Malone, JJ)