Landlord Can Get Recent Rent Due

Landlord sued to evict tenant for nonpayment of rent for the period between January 1990 through March 1995. Landlord had just discovered that tenant's SCRIE benefits had expired several years earlier and so tenant wasn't entitled to the reduced rent she'd been paying. The court ruled against landlord and dismissed the case with prejudice, finding that landlord's back-rent claim was stale. Landlord appealed, and the appeals court ruled for landlord in part. Landlord should have monitored tenant's SCRIE benefit entitlement earlier. Landlord's delay put tenant in a position of not being able to pay the accumulated back rent owed. But the court should have given landlord a judgment of possession and money judgment for the back rent due between October 1994 and March 1995, and allowed landlord to seek a money judgment for any further back rent.

1560-80 Pelham Parkway Assoc. v. Errico: NYLJ, p. 28, col. 6 (7/13/98) (App. T. 1 Dept.; Parness, PJ, McCooe, Gonzalez, JJ)