Attempts to Serve Eviction Petition on Chinese Holiday Insufficient

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for owner occupancy. Tenant asked the court to dismiss the case, claiming improper service of the eviction petition. The court ruled for tenant and dismissed the case. Landlord's process server attempted to deliver the court papers three times on the same day, at 11 a.m., 5:52 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. But these attempts were made less than eight hours apart at times when tenant might be expected not to be at home. In addition, the day delivery was attempted was a Chinese holiday. Both landlord and tenant were Chinese. So even if delivery was attempted later in the evening that day, it was unlikely that it could have been completed. A method of delivering court papers that was unlikely to succeed didn't meet the requirement to attempt personal delivery under RPAPL Section 735(1).

Lee v. Liu: NYLJ, 5/3/07, p. 19, col. 1 (Civ. Ct. NY; Finkelstein, J)