Tenants Can Proceed with Overcharge Case in a Class Action

Current and former tenants of several buildings in Washington Heights sued landlord, claiming improper deregulation and rent overcharge in their J-51 building. Tenants asked the court to certify them as a class for purposes of the lawsuit. The court ruled for tenants, despite landlord's objections. Tenants met the five prerequisites for class certification: numerosity, common questions, typicality, adequacy of representation, and superiority. There were 47 apartments involved that, with turnover, may have close to 100 potential plaintiffs. Tenants argued that the class was easily defined because every apartment was subject to rent stabilization and every deregulation unlawful, and every deregulated rent charged was an unlawful overcharge. The cases all raised common questions, with similar claims establishing typicality. The proposed class also was representative with no conflict between the class representatives and class members since they were all experiencing similar damages. A class action also was the superior method of litigating this matter. The alternative would be individual actions by tenants. A class action in this type of case conserves judicial resources.

Marcondes v. Fort 710 Assoc., LP: Index No. 160189/2017, 2022 NY Slip Op 50498(U)(Sup. Ct. NY; 6/14/22; Kraus, J)