Opinion
2019-611 W C
02-27-2020
WAI KHAN YAP, Appellant, v. LIN CHEN, Respondent.
Wai Khan Yap, appellant pro se. Lin Chen, respondent pro se (no brief filed).
Wai Khan Yap, appellant pro se.
Lin Chen, respondent pro se (no brief filed).
PRESENT: THOMAS A. ADAMS, P.J., BRUCE E. TOLBERT, JERRY GARGUILO, JJ
ORDERED that the judgment, insofar as appealed from, is modified by reducing the award in favor of defendant to the principal sum of $2,178.52; as so modified, the judgment, insofar as appealed from, is affirmed, without costs.
In this small claims action, plaintiff sued his former landlord for, among other things, the return of his security deposit, and defendant counterclaimed to recover the sum of $4,500 because plaintiff had moved out after nine months of a two-year lease. Insofar as is relevant to this appeal, after a nonjury trial, the court awarded defendant on her counterclaim $100 per month for each month covered by the second year of the lease, on the ground that defendant had received a monthly rent of $2,100 from her new tenant, while the lease between plaintiff and defendant had provided, according to the court's finding, for a monthly rent of $2,200. The court awarded defendant the total sum of $3,378.52, which included other items of damage.
In a small claims action, our review is limited to a determination of whether "substantial justice has ... been done between the parties according to the rules and principles of substantive law" ( UCCA 1807 ; see UCCA 1804 ; Ross v. Friedman , 269 AD2d 584 [2000] ; Williams v. Roper , 269 AD2d 125 [2000] ). Here, the lease between the parties that was entered into evidence demonstrates that the monthly rent was $2,100 for the second year of the lease, not $2,200 per month as determined by the court.
Since defendant's new tenant paid the same monthly rent as that which was provided for in the lease between plaintiff and defendant, defendant was not entitled to $1,200 for the second year of the lease. Thus, substantial justice between the parties (see UCCA 1804, 1807 ) requires that the judgment, insofar as appealed from, be modified by decreasing the amount awarded to defendant by $1,200 to the principal sum of $2,178.52.
ADAMS, P.J., TOLBERT and GARGUILO, JJ., concur.