New York Law Journal Features Five SBLS Cases

September 01, 2009

In the past several weeks the New York Law Journal has featured no fewer than five South Brooklyn Legal Services (a program of Legal Services NYC) Housing Court cases as "Decisions of Interest." 

Kim v. Witkoski (NYLJ link)

SBLS housing attorney Rachel Hannaford represented a tenant in Ditmas
Park being sued by his landlord for 45 months of unpaid rent, in total
sum of $21,000.

The tenant signed a lease to pay $560 a month to live in two of five
rooms in the apartment in October 2004, but after a year or so became
embroiled in legal actions and counterclaims with the landlord. The
tenant claimed that the only rent he didn’t pay was for $5,000 that he
deducted from his rent because his landlord owed him a penalty in that
amount.

Brooklyn Housing Court Judge Maria Milin agreed with the tenant that
the defense of laches barred the landlord from suing for any arrears
accrued before April 2007, and adjourned the rest of the suit to a
later date.

Classon Village LP v. Lewis (NYLJ link)

A low-income tenant who had lived in public housing in
Bedford-Stuyvesant with two children for almost a decade was served
with an eviction notice to vacate her apartment on the grounds that she
had failed to fill out income certification forms.

SBLS housing attorney Carrie Johnson helped the tenant file for
discovery, as she claimed she had submitted the forms eight months
previous.

Despite the landlord’s claims that the request was a “fishing
expedition,” Brooklyn Housing Court Judge Marcia Sikowitz granted the
motion, stating that discovery would clarify the case and prove or
disprove the tenant’s defense.

Bee Vista Realty Corp. v. Brunilda (NYLJ link)

SBLS’s Johnson also represented a tenant who was being sued for non-payment of rent at a rent-stabilized apartment.

Brooklyn Housing Court Judge Marc Finkelstein found errors in the
landlord’s petition. There were large discrepencies in the landlord’s
rent calculations. The judge found that given disability subsidies, the
tenant’s rent should have been $617. However, the apartment hadn’t been
registered with the Department of Housing and Community Renewal since
1999, when the rent was $560.

The judge ruled that the tenant owed no money and had in fact paid $400 more than was owed at the last registered rent rate.

Poulakas v. Ortiz (NYLJ link)

Steven Klutowski and Teresa Chen, SBLS externs from the law firm of
Dewey & LeBoeuf, represented a man who moved into the
rent-stabilized apartment of his mother in Ditmas Park after she passed
away.

The landlord then sued the man for unpaid rent arrears owed by the
mother for months previous to his occupation of the apartment. The
tenant claimed that he was not the administrator of his mother’s
estate, and therefore he did not owe rent or arrears for any months
before he moved in.

Judge Inez Hoyos of Brooklyn Civil Court agreed that the son could not
be sued for the mother’s unpaid rent merely due to his status as
next-of-kin.

1535 Ocean LLC v. Spain (NYLJ link)

SBLS housing attorney Michael Grinthal handled a lawsuit regarding the
Midwood apartment of a man who was sued for rent owed by his mother
before her death. The landlord sued for rent allegedly owed between
December 2007 and March 2009.

The mother had passed away in October of 2007, and at that time the son had been living in the apartment since 2005.

The son moved to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that there was no
landlord-tenant relationship between the landlord and son, as the
mother had signed a lease valid until September 2009. Brooklyn Housing
Court Judge Maria Milin dismissed the lawsuit, but did rule that if the
son remains in possession of the property, he will eventually have to
pay rent.

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