Opinion
2012-12-21
FS 41–45 TIEMANN PLACE LLC, Petitioner–Landlord–Appellant, v. Teresa ESTRELLA a/k/a Teresa Silverio, Respondent–Tenant–Respondent, and Jose M. Estrella, Ramon Estrella, “John Doe” and/or “Jane Doe,” Respondents–Undertenants.
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., New York City (Jeffrey R. Metz of counsel), for appellant. Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation Legal Services, New York City (Alan G. Morley and Kenneth Rosenfeld of counsel), for respondent.
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., New York City (Jeffrey R. Metz of counsel), for appellant. Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation Legal Services, New York City (Alan G. Morley and Kenneth Rosenfeld of counsel), for respondent.
PRESENT: LOWE III, P.J., SHULMAN, TORRES, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Order (Arlene H. Hahn, J.), dated April 26, 2011, reversed, with $10 costs, motion denied, and petition reinstated.
This holdover summary proceeding, premised upon the stabilized tenant's alleged nonprimary residence, is not ripe for summary dismissal. The limited record now before us raises several mixed questions of law and fact, including whether the (unaccepted) renewal lease offer transmitted by a “back office” employee of the landlord's “large and complex” clerical operation was mistakenly or inadvertently mailed to tenant and, if so, the proper legal effect to be given to the landlord's prompt follow-up letter purporting to withdrawthe offer and its subsequent, timely service of a combined notice of nonrenewal and termination detailing the facts underlying its nonprimary residence claim ( see generally Coleman v. Dabrowski, 163 Misc.2d 763, 624 N.Y.S.2d 721 [App. Term, 1st Dept.1994];but compare Herman v. Meryn, N.Y.L.J., July 29, 1994, at 21, col. 1 [App. Term, 1st Dept.1994] [lease renewal offer purposefully sent held binding upon landlord and “irrevocable for 60 days,” citing Rent Stabilization Code [9 NYCRR] § 2523.5(a) ] ). While we have no occasion to determine the bona fides of these issues, we do note that the creation of a landlord-tenant relationship or, more precisely here, the renewal of a rent stabilized lease “should not be reduced to a matter of gamesmanship, seduction and artifice” ( Coleman v. Dabrowski, 163 Misc.2d at 765, 624 N.Y.S.2d 721) or be made to hinge on “gotcha” litigation tactics.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.