J.D. Realty Associates, Petitioner, v. Michael Jorrin et al., Respondents. J.D. Realty Associates, Petitioner, v. Robert Shanley et al., Respondents. J.D. Realty Associates, Petitioner, v. Debbie Weisz et al., Respondents. J.D. Realty Associates, Petitioner, v. Linda Scoullar et al., Respondents. J.D. Realty Associates, Petitioner, v. Anne Newhall et al., Respondents. J.D. Realty Associates, Petitioner, v. Nona J. Russell et al., Respondents., 166 Misc. 2d 175

Summary

After becoming the building owner, the landlord acquired an assignment of past due rents that did not specify what amount was due from each tenant. The landlord served the tenants with three-day notices that included a schedule of rent. On the parties cross motions, the court held that the notice was not notice as contemplated by N.Y. Real Prop. Acts. Law § 711(2), its language rendered it both indefinite and equivocal, and it conveyed contradictory and ambiguous signals about what the tenant had to pay to avoid eviction. The court found that the landlord did not have a good-faith belief as to the amount actually owed for the period prior to July 1993. The court determined that discovery intended to determine the amount of rent owed could not be used to cure the fatal defect in the notice and that to the extent that it was sought to determine the amount in controversy, it was inappropriately sought after commencement of the proceeding. The court concluded that it would have been ...