Tenants Can Maintain Class Action for Rent Overcharge

Tenants sued landlords and asked the court to designate the case as a class action. Tenants claimed rent overcharge and a fraudulent scheme to inflate rents in over 20 buildings landlords owned and operated. The court granted landlord's request to dismiss the case, finding that the matter didn't qualify as a class action because the landlords were unrelated, separate entities and tenants sought to improperly impute claimed wrongful acts of one landlord against the others. Tenants appealed, and a divided appeals court denied the part of landlord's motion to dismiss the class actions claims except for claims alleging violation of General Business Law Section 349. The appeals court found it premature to dismiss the remaining class allegations. Landlord then appealed to New York's highest court, which ruled against landlord. The court upheld the appellate court ruling.

Maddicks v. Big City Props., LLC: 2019 NY Slip Op 07519 (Ct. App.; 10/22/19; Fahey, PJ, Rivera, Stein, Wilson, Garcia (dissent), DiFiore (dissent), Feinman (dissent), JJ