Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., Wins Trial and $100,000 Monetary and Possessory Judgment in Residential Non-Payment Case, Overcoming Laches and Breach of Warranty of Habitability Defenses
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., achieved complete victory in a hard-fought Manhattan Housing Court non-payment proceeding, winning a bench trial and obtaining a greater than $100,000 monetary and possessory judgment for its landlord client, while defeating the tenant’s laches and breaches of warranty of habitability defenses.
Representing the landlord-owner of a Manhattan condominium apartment housing a grandfathered-in rent stabilized tenant, we brought a non-payment proceeding against a highly litigious tenant, who had been litigating with prior owners of the unit and refusing to pay rent for decades.
The tenant’s counsel raised a myriad affirmative defenses and counterclaims, which included, overcharge, illegal rent, constructive eviction, harassment, laches, breaches of warranty of habitability, and others.
The case began in 2018 and included several highly contested motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, and partial summary judgment. We prevailed on the motions, resulting in the dismissal of all of the tenant’s defenses and counterclaims except for laches and warranty of habitability, which were preserved for trial.
The tenant argued that the landlord waited too long to commence the proceeding after purchasing the unit, and that various conditions in the apartment, including allegedly performed installations without Department of Building approvals, constituted a breach of the warranty of habitability entitling the tenant to a complete rent defense or at least a significant abatement of rent.
At trial we aggressively cross examined the tenant’s witnesses including an architect designated as an expert. We argued that the tenant failed to meet his burden to establish all of the elements of laches, including prejudice, and that the tenant was engaged in litigation in another forum and in settlement discussions, all of which defeat laches.
We also argued that the tenant contributed to or caused the apartment conditions of which he complained, that the landlord timely fixed any required conditions, and that the tenant failed to demonstrate any diminution of value of the apartment or any effect of any alleged conditions upon him.
The judge dismissed the tenant’s remaining defenses after trial and awarded our client judgment for the rent sought, which we then collected in full for our client.
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Partner, Vladimir Mironenko, represented the landlord from inception of the proceeding, at trial, and at post-trial proceedings.