Tenant Who Breaks Lease Responsible for Balance of Rent Due

Tenant signed a two-year lease for an apartment at a monthly rent of $3,500. After one year, tenant broke the lease. He moved out and stopped paying rent. Landlord then sued tenant for the unpaid rent due under the terms of the lease. Tenant claimed that landlord consented to his departure, although landlord denied this. Tenant also argued that landlord did nothing to mitigate the damages. In other words, landlord should have tried to find a new tenant. The court ruled for tenant and dismissed the case. Landlord appealed.
The appeals court ruled for landlord. In 1995, New York's highest court ruled that a landlord had no duty to mitigate damages when a tenant broke a lease and stopped paying rent. That case, Holy Properties v. Cole Products, involved a commercial premises. Since then, other lower courts had held that the same rule didn't apply to residential cases. But here the appeals court disagreed. The court found that New York's highest court had made no distinction between commercial and residential tenancies in the Holy Properties case. Landlord therefore had no duty in this case to mitigate damages.

Rios v. Carrillo: NYLJ, 7/9/08, p. 27, col. 1 (App. Div. 2 Dept.; Prudenti, PJ, Mastro, Santucci, Lifson, JJ)