Opinion
570470/05.
Decided May 22, 2006.
Tenant as limited by her briefs, appeals 1) from that portion of an order of the Civil Court, New York County (Timmie Erin Elsner, J.), dated January 31, 2005, which denied her motion to vacate a consent final judgment, and 2) from an order of the same court and Judge, dated June 20, 2005, which denied her motion, inter alia, to stay execution of a warrant of eviction in a holdover summary proceeding based upon chronic nonpayment of rent.
Orders (Timmie Erin Elsner, J.), dated January 31, 2005 and June 20, 2005, affirmed, without costs.
PRESENT: McCooe, J.P., Davis, Gangel-Jacob, JJ.
Civil Court's June 20, 2005 orders, denying tenant relief from her most recent default in tendering rent due pursuant to the unambiguous, "time of the essence", payment terms of the parties' settlement stipulation, represented an appropriate exercise of discretion, "Strict enforcement of the parties' settlement stipulation . . . is warranted based upon the principle that the parties in a civil dispute are free to chart their own litigation course" (Mill Rock Plaza Assoc. v. Lively, 224 AD2d 301), particularly where, as here, the rent delinquencies underlying the landlord's holdover petition continued during the probationary period agreed to by the parties and caused tenant to file no fewer than six show cause orders seeking payment extensions and other relief. To the extent the court's January 31, 2005 order denied tenant's application to vacate the underlying consent final judgment, it also constituted a sound exercise of the court's discretion.
This constitutes the decision and order of the court.