Tenants Attempt Class Action Based on Superstorm Sandy Damage

Tenants filed a proposed class action against all New York State landlords and their managing agents, seeking rent rebates for violations of the warranty of habitability caused by Superstorm Sandy, as well as claims for unjust enrichment. Landlords named in the court action opposed the lawsuit. The court ruled that: (a) managing agents who weren't parties to tenants' leases couldn't be responsible for breach of the warranty of habitability; (b) tenants couldn't maintain unjust enrichment claims; (c) landlords weren't responsible to individual tenants who left their apartments for reasons other than lack of habitability; (d) the proposed tenant-plaintiff class was overly broad and legally defective; and (e) the proposed landlord-defendant class would violate due process since it would be daunting if not impossible to properly notify all New York landlords of the claims.

The court pointed out that there was no way to make class-wide determinations about landlords' mitigation efforts or effects of electricity outages in each area or building. The court also noted that tenants who left their apartments before the storm and who left their belongings in the apartments couldn't maintain claims against landlords for constructive eviction since such claims required wrongful acts by landlord and abandonment of possession. The court granted tenants permission to amend their court papers to try to more correctly define a class of tenants with a legal claim.

Adler v. Ogden Cap Properties, LLC: 2013 NY Slip Op 23428, 2013 WL 6583955 (Sup. Ct. NY; 12/11/13; Kornreich, J)