Opinion
No. 2011–1513WC.
2012-08-6
Joel RAMIREZ, Respondent, v. Ben Paul SINO, Appellant.
Present: NICOLAI, P.J., MOLIA and IANNACCI, JJ.
Appeal from a judgment of the City Court of White Plains, Westchester County (Brian Hansbury, J.), entered September 8, 2010. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $1,400 and dismissed defendant's counterclaim.
ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff commenced this small claims action to recover a security deposit in the sum of $1,400. Defendant counterclaimed for, among other things, November 2009 rent, allegedly owed because plaintiff had failed to give defendant a month's notice prior to removing from the apartment ( seeReal Property Law § 232–b). Following a nonjury trial, the City Court awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $1,400 and dismissed the counterclaim.
In our view, the City Court's determination rendered substantial justice between the parties according to the rules and principles of substantive law (UCCA 1804, 1807). On the record before it, the City Court could properly find that plaintiff, a month-to month tenant, moved out after defendant's agent had demanded that he do so because of an overcrowding condition. In those circumstances, plaintiff would not be required to give defendant a month's notice of his intention to terminate the tenancy ( cf. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Childs Co., 230 N.Y. 285, 293 [1921] ).
Accordingly, the judgment is affirmed