Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails in Case and Saves Tenancies of Three Apartments Based on Polyamorous Defense and Finding Defects in Landlord’s Case
A non-traditional family of four men spreads their highly integrated lives over three rent-stabilized apartments on East 17th Street. All three apartments are used as sleeping quarters. One of the three apartments is used to make and eat meals. Another apartment is used as an “office” where the family conducts its personal affairs, such as paying bills, doing computer work and storing paperwork. They hired Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to save their apartments when the landlord tried to evict them, alleging they were not using two of the three apartments as their primary residences. Drawing precedents from monasteries and other unusual family set ups, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. established the precedent that a family can be a real family living in a state of polyamory — a loving interdependent permanent relationship of three or more persons.
The landlord’s notice terminating their tenancy, also known as the Golub notice, at first impression may have appeared to be your standard termination notice. Years of experience in evaluating and analyzing termination notices led the firm’s landlord-tenant group to immediately spot a defect in one of the Golub notices that would ultimately win the case as to that apartment. The Golub notice terminated the tenancy of “Apartment A” while the eviction proceeding sought to evict our client from “Apartment B.” Meanwhile, “Apartment C,” the third apartment which made up the cluster of apartments over which the men spread their lives, remained unmentioned.
Using both the technical defect in the Golub notice and the ground-breaking polyamory defense, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. prevailed in having enough parts of the case dismissed to secure its clients’ home. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. argued that such a defect in the notice yields sheer and utter confusion such that its clients could not possibly be expected to understand which part of their home was threatened by eviction. The presiding judge of the Civil Court agreed with Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., and Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients were deemed entitled to a renewal lease and dismissal of the proceeding altogether.
Adam Leitman Bailey, Dov Treiman, and Christopher Halligan represented the tenant in this proceeding.