Tenant's Daughter Gets Apartment Despite Frequent Absences

Facts: Landlord sued to evict rent-controlled tenant's daughter after tenant died in 1998. The daughter claimed that she moved in with tenant in 1996 and had pass-on rights. She had AIDS, and so was a disabled person who had only to prove that she had lived in the apartment with tenant for one year before his death to qualify for pass-on rights. Even though she listed the apartment as her address on various documents, landlord claimed that tenant's daughter didn't live there continuously. She traveled for extended periods outside the country and spent part of every month at her mother's house in Southampton. Court: Landlord loses. Temporary absences from the apartment didn't bar tenant's daughter from having pass-on rights. Given tenant's life-threatening disability, her several long trips abroad and frequent stays with her mother weren't unreasonable.

335 E. 70th Realty Inc. v. Sara M.: NYLJ, 8/9/00, p. 23, col. 5 (Civ. Ct. NY; Milin, J)