Wai Khan Yap v Lin Chen

[*1] Wai Khan Yap v Lin Chen 2020 NY Slip Op 50313(U) Decided on February 27, 2020 Appellate Term, Second 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 This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.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 February 27, 2020
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, SECOND DEPARTMENT, 9th and 10th JUDICIAL DISTRICTS
PRESENT: : THOMAS A. ADAMS, P.J., BRUCE E. TOLBERT, JERRY GARGUILO, JJ
2019-611 W C

Wai Khan Yap, Appellant,

against

Lin Chen, Respondent.

Wai Khan Yap, appellant pro se. Lin Chen, respondent pro se (no brief filed).

Appeal from a judgment of the City Court of White Plains, Westchester County (Alfonse Naclerio, J.), entered March 11, 2019. The judgment, insofar as appealed from, after a nonjury trial, awarded defendant the principal sum of $3,378.52 on her counterclaim.

ORDERED that the judgment, insofar as appealed from, is modified by reducing the award in favor of defendant to the principal sum of $2,178.52; as so modified, the judgment, insofar as appealed from, is affirmed, without costs.

In this small claims action, plaintiff sued his former landlord for, among other things, the return of his security deposit, and defendant counterclaimed to recover the sum of $4,500 because plaintiff had moved out after nine months of a two-year lease. Insofar as is relevant to this appeal, after a nonjury trial, the court awarded defendant on her counterclaim $100 per month for each month covered by the second year of the lease, on the ground that defendant had received a monthly rent of $2,100 from her new tenant, while the lease between plaintiff and defendant had provided, according to the court's finding, for a monthly rent of $2,200. The court awarded defendant the total sum of $3,378.52, which included other items of damage.

In a small claims action, our review is limited to a determination of whether "substantial [*2]justice has . . . been done between the parties according to the rules and principles of substantive law" (UCCA 1807; see UCCA 1804; Ross v Friedman, 269 AD2d 584 [2000]; Williams v Roper, 269 AD2d 125 [2000]). Here, the lease between the parties that was entered into evidence demonstrates that the monthly rent was $2,100 for the second year of the lease, not $2,200 per month as determined by the court.

Since defendant's new tenant paid the same monthly rent as that which was provided for in the lease between plaintiff and defendant, defendant was not entitled to $1,200 for the second year of the lease. Thus, substantial justice between the parties (see UCCA 1804, 1807) requires that the judgment, insofar as appealed from, be modified by decreasing the amount awarded to defendant by $1,200 to the principal sum of $2,178.52.

ADAMS, P.J., TOLBERT and GARGUILO, JJ., concur.

ENTER:
Paul Kenny
Chief Clerk
Decision Date: February 27, 2020