[*1]
Touhey v Lesker
2012 NY Slip Op 51308(U) [36 Misc 3d 133(A)]
Decided on July 16, 2012
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This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.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 16, 2012
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT

PRESENT: Shulman, J.P., Hunter, Jr., Torres, JJ
570947/11.

John Touhey, Petitioner-Respondent,

against

Michael Lesker, Respondent-Appellant.


Respondent Michael Lesker appeals from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (John H. Stanley, J.), dated June 28, 2011, which granted petitioner's motion for summary judgment on his possessory cause of action and denied respondent's cross motion for summary judgment dismissing the petition in a holdover summary proceeding.


Per Curiam.

Order (John H. Stanley, J.), dated June 28, 2011, affirmed, with $10 costs, for the reasons stated by John H. Stanley, J. at Civil Court.

Petitioner was properly awarded summary judgment of possession on the holdover petition, since respondent-appellant's lone stated defense of adverse possession is without merit. The record, far from establishing by "clear and convincing evidence" (Ray v Beacon Hudson Mtn. Corp., 88 NY2d 154, 159 [1996]) that appellant's possession of the hallway storage closet here in dispute was hostile and under a claim of right, conclusively shows that appellant entered into possession permissively, with the express authorization of an individual (Halfon) whom appellant himself identified as the "building manager." Such authorization conveyed, at most, a revocable license to use the closet (see 10 E. 70th St., Inc. v Gimbel, 309 AD2d 644, 645 [2003]).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.
Decision Date: July 16, 2012