[*1]
Abart Holdings LLC v Hall
2004 NY Slip Op 50823(U)
Decided on July 14, 2004
Appellate Term, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.


Decided on July 14, 2004
APPELLATE TERM OF THE SUPREME COURT, FIRST DEPARTMENT

PRESENT:
HON. LUCINDO SUAREZ, P.J.
HON. WILLIAM P. McCOOE
HON. PHYLLIS GANGEL-JACOB, Justices.
570578/03

ABART HOLDINGS LLC, Petitioner-Landlord-Appellant,

against

J. COLBY HALL, Respondent-Tenant-Respondent.


Landlord appeals from an order and final judgment of the Civil Court, New York County, entered January 23, 2003 after trial (Michele D. Schreiber, J.) dismissing the petition in a nonpayment summary proceeding.


PER CURIAM:

Order and final judgment entered January 23, 2003 (Michelle D. Schreiber, J.) affirmed, with $25 costs.

The trial record supports Civil Court's finding that even assuming an oral demand for the rent was made, its content — as testified to by landlord's principal — was too indefinite to serve as the jurisdictional predicate for a nonpayment proceeding (see RPAPL § 711[2]; Rasch's Landlord and Tenant, 4th ed., § 32:13, § 32:16).

There was no abuse of discretion is relegating landlord to a plenary action for alleged pre-1998 rent arrears, particularly given landlord's inaction over a four year period following discontinuance of the prior nonpayment proceeding and its collection of rent for subsequent periods (see City of New York v Betancourt, 79 Misc 2d 907).

This constitutes the decision and order of the court.