In a licensee summary proceeding seeking to recover possession of a rent-stabilized apartment, MTM, the tenant's daughter, defended her right to succeed to the tenancy after her mother passed away. But after a nonjury trial, the Westchester County City Court found in the landlord’s failure – since MTM had purportedly failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish that she had resided in the apartment for the requisite amount of time to qualify for succession rights. (She was also ordered to pay $600.)
On appeal, the Appellate Term, Second Department, noted that MTM testified that she moved from Ireland to the one-bedroom apartment in 2017 to care for her ailing mother, living with her and sleeping on a pull-out couch until her mother's death in 2020. She submitted her driver's license and learner's permit, both listing the subject address, along with other documents indicating that she claimed the address as her residence. MTM explained that she could not provide tax returns as evidence of residency because she did not have an income, dedicating herself full-time to her mother's care. (Interestingly, the landlord failed to provide any rebuttal testimony or documents to counter MTM’s claims.)
Finding that MTM had sufficiently established her right to succeed to her mother's tenancy, the AT2 reversed the underlying determination and sent the case back for the “entry of a final judgment dismissing the relevant portion of the petition against” (MTM).
While the landlord claimed that MTM had not proven she was the tenant's daughter, the AT2 noted the landlord's own witness had referred to MTM as the tenant's daughter during the trial.
Was that a mother lode?
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DECISION