Opinion
March 31, 1952.
In a proceeding pursuant to article 78 of the Civil Practice Act to review the denial by the State Rent Administrator of petitioner's application for a certificate for eviction of a tenant from a housing accommodation, the said Administrator appeals from an order made October 31, 1951, granting the petition and directing the Administrator to issue such certificate, and from a subsequent order, made December 7, 1951, granting reargument and on reargument adhering to the original determination. Appeal, insofar as it is from the order of October 31, 1951, dismissed, without costs. Order of December 7, 1951, reversed, on the law and the facts, without costs, and petition dismissed, without costs. The petitioner converted the subject building into a multiple dwelling by adding a third apartment. The fact that she did so without compliance with pertinent statutory provisions and thereby rendered herself subject to prosecution, and the fact that the New York City Department of Housing and Buildings had given her notice of the violation and had ordered her to restore the premises to its lawful occupancy, do not mean that the building has remained a two-family house, despite the physical conversion. Accordingly, petitioner was not entitled to a certificate in the absence of establishing an immediate and compelling necessity. (State Residential Rent Law, § 5, subd. 2, par. [a], as amd. by L. 1951, ch. 443.) The determination by the Administrator that the petitioner had not established such necessity has support in the record and the court may not substitute its judgment for that of the Administrator. Nolan, P.J., Carswell, Johnston, Wenzel and MacCrate, JJ., concur. [See post, p. 1023.]