Tenant's Alterations Violated Lease

Landlord cooperative corporation sued to evict tenant for making apartment alterations in violation of his proprietary lease. The court ruled against landlord and dismissed the case. Landlord appealed and won. Tenant's lease barred both ''any alteration, enclosure or addition'' within the apartment and removal of ''any fixtures, appliances, additions or improvements.'' Tenant made extensive renovations by reconstructing the kitchen and bathroom of the duplex apartment. He also removed the kitchen ceiling, replaced a staircase, and put up and attached two steel girders to the building's frame to support a new elevated plexiglass walkway connecting two previously separated areas of the second-floor space. These weren't merely ''aesthetic'' alterations, as the lower court found, but serious structural changes that violated tenant's lease. The court delayed 10 days in issuing an eviction warrant to permit tenant to remove the alterations.

Penny Lane Owners Corp. v. Vinokur: NYLJ, p. 30, col. 1 (2/13/98) (App. T. 1 Dept.; Parness, JP, McCooe, Freedman, JJ)