[*1]
Grand Imperial LLC v Peterson
2013 NY Slip Op 50431(U) [39 Misc 3d 128(A)]
Decided on March 27, 2013
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This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.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 March 27, 2013
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT

PRESENT: Lowe, III, P.J., Shulman, Schoenfeld, JJ
570008/12.

Grand Imperial LLC, Imperial LLC, Imperial Success LLC and F & M Imperial LLC, Petitioner-Landlord-Respondent,

against

Simone Peterson a/k/a Lee Ward, Respondent-Tenant-Appellant.


Tenant appeals from a final judgment of the Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (Cheryl J. Gonzalez, J.), entered November 14, 2011, after a nonjury trial, which awarded possession to landlord in a holdover summary proceeding.


Per Curiam.

Final judgment (Cheryl J. Gonzalez, J.), entered November 14, 2011, affirmed, with $25 costs, for the reasons stated by Cheryl J. Gonzalez, J. at Civil Court.

In affirming the trial court's fully supported finding that appellant tenant Peterson does not primarily reside in the subject West 79th Street rent stabilized SRO hotel unit, we emphasize the compelling trial evidence showing that for the better part of a decade tenant has falsely posed as the record tenant of a rent stabilized apartment on East 50th Street, residing therein and forging the signature of the putative tenant — one Lee Ward, who, if she ever lived in the 50th Street apartment, has long since vacated — on a series of renewal leases. We note additionally that it was well within the province of the trial court to reject tenant's (unpleaded) defense of constructive eviction.

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.
Decision Date: March 27, 2013