THIS WAS UN-SOOTABLE
After he purchased the right to occupy a penthouse apartment in a cooperative owned by Gramercy Park Residence Corp, T.W. noted that his unit was being infiltrated by a “black, soot-like dust.”
In 2012 and 2013, G.W. renovated his unit, (replacing the windows, doors, ceilings and ducted central a/c), but the condition worsened. After hiring experts, and making an intermediate repair, it was concluded that the building’s “inadequately ventilated boiler room” was the cause of the problem.
In 2018, G.W. filed a lawsuit seeking damages premised upon contract breach and negligence theories. And while the New York County Supreme Court dismissed the negligence related claims, it declined to dismiss the causes of action premised upon “breach of proprietary lease, breach of warranty of habitability, and breach of fiduciary duty.”
On appeal, the Appellate Division, First Department, thought the negligence claims had been untimely interposed and were thus properly dismissed. But since a six-year statute of limitations governed the other causes of action, and damages were limited to “those allowable under the law of damages for contract liability," the AD1 concluded that those aspects of the case were properly permitted to survive.
Think they smoked that out?
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DECISION