80 St. Nicholas Ave. HDFC v Lewis

[*1] 80 St. Nicholas Ave. HDFC v Lewis 2009 NY Slip Op 51473(U) [24 Misc 3d 134(A)] Decided on July 13, 2009 Appellate Term, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

Decided on July 13, 2009
APPELLATE TERM OF THE SUPREME COURT, FIRST DEPARTMENT
PRESENT: McKeon, P.J., Schoenfeld, Heitler, JJ
570235/08.

80 St. Nicholas Ave. HDFC, Petitioner-Landlord-Appellant,

against

Agnes Lewis s/h/a A. Lewis, Respondent-Tenant-Respondent, 80 St. Nicholas Ave. HDFC, Petitioner-Landlord-Appellant, Jules Percy, Respondent-Tenant-Respondent, 80 St. Nicholas Ave. HDFC, Petitioner-Landlord-Appellant, Lynn Reimoneg, Respondent-Tenant-Respondent, 80 St. Nicholas Ave. HDFC, Petitioner-Landlord-Appellant, Restina Smith, Respondent-Tenant-Respondent.

In consolidated holdover summary proceedings, landlord appeals from an order of the [*2]Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (Jean T. Schneider, J.), dated December 10, 2007, which granted tenants' motions to dismiss the petitions.

Per Curiam.

Order (Jean T. Schneider, J.), dated December 10, 2007, reversed, with $10 costs, motions denied, petitions reinstated and matters remanded for further proceedings.

Landlord, a housing development fund corporation (HDFC), seeks to recover possession of four separate apartments on the basis that tenants, after the subject building was converted to cooperative ownership under an eviction plan, failed to purchase their respective units. Inasmuch as landlord alleged a cause for eviction other than the mere expiration of tenants' leases (see 512 East 111th Street HDFC v Grimmet, 181 AD2d 488 [1992], appeal dismissed 80 NY2d 892 [1992]), summary dismissal of the petitions was unwarranted. Nor was landlord's delay in commencing the within proceedings fatal to its possessory claims in the circumstances herein present (see Schorr v New York City Dept. of Hous. Preserv. & Dev., 10 NY3d 776 [2008]).
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.
Decision Date: July 13, 2009