Minor Miscalculation Forgiven
After a Civil Court judge dismissed a commercial nonpayment case predicated upon a defect in the rent demand, the landlord appealed to the Appellate Term, First Department.Upon the AT1’s review of the record, the demand was found to have satisfied the requisites of law [RPAPL 711(2)] in that it “afforded tenant notice of the particular periods for which rent and other charges were due and the approximate good faith amount claimed for each such period.” The “de minimus miscalculation in the rent demand did not render the notice jurisdictionally defective so as to warrant dismissal of the petition.”
Additionally, because it was undisputed that tenant had not paid rent “for more than one year,” and since it couldn't come up with any viable defenses for its failure or refusal to remit payment, the landlord’s motion for summary-judgment relief in its favor was also granted. So not only was the dismissal unanimously reversed, but the three-judge panel remanded the case back to the court below to determine the precise amount of rent and legal fees that should be awarded to the owner.
Will this landlord soon be rolling in dough?
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DECISION