Witnesses Help Prove Tenant's Wife Lived in Apartment

Landlord sued to evict rent-controlled tenant's wife after tenant died. Tenant and his wife got married three years before he died, when she was 34 years old and he was 82 years old and in poor health. The court ruled against landlord after a jury trial. Landlord appealed and lost. Tenant's wife showed that she lived in the apartment with him after they were married. Although tenant's wife still received some mail across the street at her old address, a neighbor from the wife's old building testified that tenant's wife came and went regularly from tenant's building with laundry and groceries after she married tenant. Another witness did repair work in tenant's apartment every few months and saw the wife's belongings in the apartment. The fact that tenant's wife didn't show she filed income tax returns from the apartment for the period in question wasn't considered important by the lower court. This wasn't an error. Landlord didn't show that tenant's wife filed any tax returns for that period and didn't even ask for them during pretrial questioning.

23 Jones St. Assoc. v. Keebler-Beretta: NYLJ, 10/16/00, p. 24, col. 6 (App. T.1 Dept.; Parness, PJ, McCooe, Gangel-Jacob, JJ)