Case Notes
Case Notes provides insight on one particularly relevant co-op or condo case—clearly explaining what happened, why it’s important, and what lessons can be learned within.
Category
- Access
- Alterations
- Appeals
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- Assessment
- Attorney Fees
- Attorney-Client
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- Balcony/Terrace Rights
- Bike Lane
- Board of Directors
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- Business Judgment Rule
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- Reasonableness
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- Trial Practice
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- Warranty of Habitability
- Yellowstone Injunction
- Zoning
First published: Jun 2005
Litwack v. Plaza Realty InvestorsThe court here refused to dismiss the mold illness claim against the landlord before further evidence was introduced on the causal connection between the mold condition and the illness. The issue was one of the landlord’s knowledge of the mold condition. The court was not prepared to dismiss the tenant’s claim because the court believed that persistent water leaks might result in a landlord’s having constructive notice of a mold condition.
Read full articleFirst published: May 2005
Arnold v. No 24 Gramercy Park Inc.The co-op had granted Arnold permission to alter his apartment and install a central air conditioning system. When the co-op board members had second thoughts about this installation, they acted as if the permission was conditional and revocable despite any evidence that this was the case. Levandusky was no defense for the board’s breach of contract liability. This was not a case where the business judgment rule could protect the board’s efforts to alter the consent. Perhaps most significantly, the decision here holds that the shareholder may recover his legal fees from the co-op because of a statutory provision in the Real Property Law for the benefit of tenants. This should give other co-op boards pause before trying to alter binding contracts with shareholders.
Read full articleFirst published: Apr 2005
Matter of Contello Towers Corporation v. New York City Department of Housing Preservation and DevelopmentThis case is one of many faced regularly by both co-op and condo boards each year in which an occupant seeks to justify keeping a pet where pets are prohibited. Since these house rules are generally permissible with some exceptions for pets protected under the New York City Pet Waiver Law (because of a continuous known presence for more than 90 days), most challenges to such rules fail. Recently, challenges have relied on disabilities or hardships to trump the prohibitions. Although a trained seeing-eye dog for a blind person would invariably be permitted under the ADA, mental depression or distress is more difficult to measure. Here, the degree of distress did not rise to a level sufficient to override the building-wide prohibition.
Read full articleFirst published: Jan 2005
Chrysikopoulos v. Soho Greene Associates LLCAs discussed above, under the clear and unambiguous terms of the purchase agreement and the offering plan, the court concluded that the sponsor was obligated to renovate the building and plaintiff’s unit, and defendants had failed to establish the existence of a triable issue of material fact as to their liability under these agreements. A trial was necessary, however, to determine the nature and extent of damages, specifically the extent to which the sponsor failed to comply with its obligations to renovate the building and plaintiff’s unit under the terms of the offering plan and the purchase agreement.
Read full articleFirst published: Dec 2004
Board of Managers of Lido Beach Towers Condominium v. GamielThe motion court failed to actually decide both the immunity of the board and whether the “pet carry” rule discriminated against a unit-owner with a medical necessity. It required a trial to ascertain the facts giving rise to each issue. However, from the views expressed by the court, it seems likely that the board’s immunity will be upheld and that an exception to the rule will be granted if a discriminatory motive on the board’s part can be shown.
Read full articleFirst published: Nov 2004
Robinson v Mansfield Gardens Inc.Most co-op shareholders do not pay late fees until there is a resolution of the non-payment issue which invariably gave rise to the late fees. If, however, a shareholder decides to pay late fees before there is a resolution of the arrears issue, the payment should be marked “paid under protest.” This reservation should preserve the shareholder’s claim to recover such fees when there is a settlement.
Read full articleFirst published: Nov 2004
Northeast Restoration Corp. v. K&J Construction Co. L.P.In this case, the contractor was engaged by a developer for roofing work in the construction of a condominium development. Because of a dispute with the developer, the contractor was not paid. It failed to file a mechanics lien before the property was converted to condominium ownership. When the contractor filed under the Condominium Act to recover from the common charges paid to the association by unit-owners, the court disallowed the lien on the ground that the unit-owners bought their units expecting that the developer had already paid for the improvements. The contractor was stuck.
Read full articleFirst published: Nov 2004
Board of Managers of Lido Beach Towers Condominium v. GamielThe motion court failed to actually decide both the immunity of the board and whether the “pet carry” rule discriminated against a unit-owner with a medical necessity. It required a trial to ascertain the facts giving rise to each issue. However, from the views expressed by the court, it seems likely that the board’s immunity will be upheld and that an exception to the rule will be granted if a discriminatory motive on the board’s part can be shown.
Read full articleFirst published: Oct 2004
13315 Owners Corp. v. KennedyThe court’s great caution in adhering to the Pullman doctrine is apparent throughout this carefully decided case. Here, the lease termination was the result of board action without a shareholder vote unlike the case in Pullman, which involved shareholder action. Since the court expresses concern about arbitrary action by a few shareholders who also happen to be board members, when there is evidence of some irregularity in the actions taken by the board to evict Kennedy, the court concludes that it, not the board, must determine if the actions complained of by the board constituted objectionable conduct. This result is presumably the way a court would have acted before Pullman. Several further decisions can be anticipated as New York courts try to flesh out the parameters of the Pullman decision.
Read full articleFirst published: Sep 2004
Rouette v. One West 126th Street Housing Development Fund Corp.This case illustrates a co-op board’s misuse of the business judgment rule standard of review from the Levandusky case to justify its action. The rule only protects board decisions within the scope of the board’s authority taken in good faith for legitimate business purposes of the co-op. It does not permit the co-op to breach its contractual obligations to buy and sell a co-op apartment with one of its shareholders.
Read full article