Tenant's Children Seek Pass-On Rights to Rent-Controlled Apartment

Facts: Landlord served a 30-day notice of termination for nonprimary residence on rent-controlled tenants. Landlord believed tenants had moved to Connecticut. Before landlord could proceed further, adult children of tenants sued landlord to bar eviction proceedings, claiming they were entitled to pass-on rights. The court ruled for tenants' children, and landlord appealed. Court: Landlord wins. There was no reason to permit tenants' children to proceed with a supreme court action which was intended to prevent landlord from proceeding with eviction action and conducting proper pretrial questioning. The proof presented in the supreme court case was sketchy at best. For example, there was no record of when tenants bought their Connecticut home. The issues to be decided in an eviction action were when exactly tenants moved out of the apartment, whether tenants' children lived in Connecticut with their parents between 1981 and 1991 while they were teenagers, and whether the children's residence in the apartment was otherwise interrupted at various times.

Cox and Cox v. J.D. Realty Assoc.: NYLJ, p. 25, col. 3 (12/21/95) (App. Div. 1 Dept.; Rosenberger, JP, Wallach, Rubin, Kupferman, Mazzarelli, JJ)