Tenant's Son Who Used Apartment for Illegal Business Can't Get Pass-On Rights

Landlord sued to evict rent-controlled tenant's son after tenant died in 2010. While the son claimed succession rights, the court ruled for landlord. In a lengthy decision involving unusual questions, the court looked at both whether the son met the two-year primary residence requirement to establish succession rights, and whether he had been involved in an illegal business that permitted eviction. The son went to prison in 2002 and, although later released, remained under parole with a mandatory condition that he remain absent from the apartment until he returned in 2009. The court found that the parole conditions amounted to a court order and therefore the son fell under exceptions to the requirement that he live with tenant for at least two years before she died in order to claim succession. However, landlord also claimed that the son had engaged in illegal trade, manufacture, or other illegal business and that this was grounds for eviction.

The court agreed. The son had used recording technology for a year to tape a teenage girl in the building while she engaged in sexual activity. This constituted an illegal business--the manufacture of illegal child pornography, regardless of whether he planned to sell the tapes. The prior court order and the son's underlying activities were grounds for eviction.

36170 Realty Ltd. v. Boyd: Index No. 56347/2011, 2021 NY Slip Op 21041 (Civ. Ct. Kings; 2/22/21; Levine, J)