Opinion
No. 570471/11.
2012-06-26
Elena STRUJAN, Plaintiff v. Barbara ADRIANO, UES Operating Company, LLC, and USA Bound, Defendants–Respondents.
Plaintiff appeals from a judgment of the Small Claims Part of the Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (Arlene P. Bluth, J.), entered on or about October 20, 2010, after trial, in favor of defendants dismissing the action.
Present: LOWE, III, P.J., SHULMAN, TORRES, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Judgment (Arlene P. Bluth, J.), entered on or about October 20, 2010, reversed, without costs, and judgment awarded in favor of plaintiff in the principal sum of $650. The Clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly.
The evidence presented at the trial of this small claims action showed, and the trial court expressly found, that plaintiff cancelled the short-term (one-month) rental agreement one-day after she received the keys to the residential rental unit at issue, citing particularized concerns over the safety of defendants' premises. Since plaintiff was shown the unit for the first time upon her receipt of the keys, and given that the parties' one-page “invoice” agreement contained no provision that plaintiff's deposit was nonrefundable or authorizing defendant to collect a cancellation fee, the ends of “substantial justice” (CCA 1807) will best be served by awarding plaintiff a recovery of the balance ($650) of her deposit. THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND JUDGMENT OF THE COURT.