Tenant Violated Settlement Agreement

Landlord NYCHA sued to evict tenant for nondesireability based on problems caused by tenant's son. Tenant signed a settlement agreement, agreeing that her eldest son wouldn't be allowed to visit the apartment. Landlord later claimed that tenant violated the agreement by allowing her son in the apartment, and terminated the tenancy. Tenant appealed and won. Tenant violated the settlement agreement only once. Terminating her tenancy was too severe a penalty for this breach of the agreement, especially since tenant had caused no other problems, was on public assistance, and had six other children who lived with her. The court sent the case back to NYCHA to impose a less severe penalty.

Johnson v. NYCHA: NYLJ, p. 24, col. 4 (11/22/99) (App. Div.1 Dept.; Sullivan, JP, Nardelli, Mazzarelli, Lerner, Buckley, JJ)