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ANTI-HARASSMENT LAW UPHELD
City Law Allowing Tenants to Sue Over Harassment Upheld
By Daniel Wise from Sue Susman
11-17-2010

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     Two tenants' organizations were granted permission to participate in
the lawsuit as intervenors.
     Writing for a unanimous panel, Justice David B. Saxe (See Profile)
found that, contrary to the RSA's argument, Local Law 7 of 2008 "falls
within the previously defined jurisdiction of the Housing [Court]
entitling it to enforce laws to establish and maintain housing
standards."
     Justices Richard T. Andrias (See Profile), John W. Sweeny Jr. (See
Profile), Eugene Nardelli (See Profile) and James M. Catterson (See
Profile) joined the opinion.
     The panel affirmed a ruling by Acting Supreme Court Justice Eileen A.
Rakower in Manhattan (See Profile).<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp; Mitchell Posilkin, the general counsel of the Rent Stabilization
Association, said it would be premature to comment on whether an
effort would be made to appeal to the Court of Appeals.
     Local Law 7 amended the New York City Administrative Code by adding a
provision authorizing tenants who claimed to have been harassed to sue
their landlords for civil penalties, injunctive relief and attorney's
fees.
     Under the law, landlords can be considered to have harassed tenants
when they take actions designed to force them to leave their
apartments or surrender legal rights. Among the actions defined as
harassment are physical force, interruption of essential services or
bringing baseless legal proceedings.
     Since the law became effective on March 13, 2008, tenants have filed
1,139 harassment cases in Housing Court. In 35 of those cases, judges
imposed a total of $141,320 in civil penalties. Many of the penalties
were imposed in cases where the landlord defaulted, according to city
Department of Housing Development and Preservation. Judges have
discretion to assess penalties ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, which
are payable to the city.
     In their challenge to the law, the landlords relied on language in the
1972 statute creating the Housing Court, claiming that the City
Council in adopting Local 7 had unconstitutionally "usurped" the
state's exclusive authority to expand the jurisdiction of the Housing
Court.
     The Housing Court is not technically a "court," but rather a series of
courtrooms, or court parts, within the New York City Civil Court,
which have been designated by court administrators to hear
landlord-tenant cases.
     The landlords argued that the Legislature's creation of the Housing
Court, as an amendment to the New York City Civil Court Act (CCA),
restricted the new court's jurisdiction to "actions and proceedings
involving the enforcement of state law for the establishment and
maintenance of housing standards," which they defined as objective
standards dealing with the physical plant and operations of a
building.
     Justice Saxe saw the constitutional and statutory framework in an
entirely different way. "In our view, the creation of remedies for
harassment of tenants by landlords," he wrote, "falls squarely within
the concept of 'housing standards' as the term has been understood and
applied" since the creation of the Housing Court.
     Justice Saxe rejected the landlords' arguments that housing standards
are limited to "objective" standards as opposed to "subjective"
assessments such as whether harassment has occurred.
     The Civil Court in other provisions authorizes Housing Court judges to
make "subjective" judgments in a number of areas, such as whether or
not a tenant has been exposed to conditions that endanger or are
detrimental to life, health or safety, Justice Saxe said.
     Similar subjective judgments are required to adjudicate questions
relating to "nuisances," such as the existence of noxious odors or
excessive noise, or whether a tenant has engaged in objectionable
conduct, he added.
     Karen Griffin, a senior counsel with the city Law Department who
worked on the appeal, said, "We are pleased the court affirmed the
city's important efforts to increase protections for tenants being
harassed by landlords."
     Charles Capetanakis and Howard Weiss of Davidoff Malito & Hutcher
represented the RSA and the two real estate groups: Prometheus Realty
Group and 68-60 108th Realty.
     The two intervenor tenant groups, Association for Neighborhood and
Housing Development and the Queens Vantage Tenants Council, were
represented by Edward Josephson and Michael Grinthal of South Brooklyn
Legal Services.

Daniel Wise can be contacted at dwise@alm.com