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Fourth Hous. Co., Inc. v Voogt
2016 NY Slip Op 51034(U) [52 Misc 3d 135(A)]
Decided on June 23, 2016
Appellate Term, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected in part through July 12, 2016; it will not be published in the printed Official Reports.


Decided on June 23, 2016
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, SECOND DEPARTMENT, 2d, 11th and 13th JUDICIAL DISTRICTS

PRESENT: : PESCE, P.J., WESTON and ALIOTTA, JJ.
2015-209 Q C

Fourth Housing Company, Inc., Appellant,

against

Thierry Voogt, Respondent, and "John Doe" and "Jane Doe," Undertenants.


Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Inez Hoyos, J.), dated October 1, 2014. The order denied landlord's motion for summary judgment in a holdover summary proceeding.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed, without costs, and, upon searching the record, summary judgment is awarded to tenant dismissing the petition.

Landlord, a Mitchell-Lama housing corporation, brought this holdover proceeding alleging that it had terminated the tenancy in accordance with a provision of the lease referred to as the "chronic non-payment rule." Landlord moved for summary judgment, and the Civil Court denied that motion.

A holdover proceeding based upon a landlord's termination of a lease may only be maintained where there is a conditional limitation in the lease providing for its early termination (see Perrotta v Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., 98 AD2d 1 [1983]; St. Catherine of Sienna Roman Catholic Church, at St. Albans, Queens County v 118 Convent Assoc., LLC, 44 Misc 3d 8, 11 [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2014]). For the reasons stated in Fourth Hous. Co., Inc. v Bowers (___ Misc 3d ___, 2016 NY Slip Op 26217 [appeal No. 2015-401 Q C], decided herewith), we find that the lease provision in question constitutes a condition and not a conditional limitation, and therefore this holdover proceeding does not lie.

Accordingly, the order is affirmed and, upon searching the record, summary judgment is awarded to tenant dismissing the petition without prejudice to landlord's commencement of an ejectment action.

Pesce, P.J., and Aliotta, J., concur.

Weston, J., concurs in part and dissents in part in a separate memorandum.

Weston, J., concurs in part and dissents in part and votes to affirm the order in the following memorandum:

For the reasons stated in my partial dissent in Fourth Hous. Co., Inc. v Bowers (___ Misc 3d ___, 2016 NY Slip Op 26217 [appeal No. 2015-401 Q C], decided herewith), I would affirm the order.


Decision Date: June 23, 2016