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Matter Of Aryeh Realty Corp. V. 18 E. 69th St Tenant, Llc

All Decisions

In this commercial nonpayment proceeding, the court affirmed the lower court's finding that the landlord and tenant orally modified their lease to reduce the monthly rent, with performance confirming the modification. Consequently, the landlord was not entitled to attorneys' fees as it did not prevail on this central issue. However, the court remanded the case to the Civil Court for a recalculation of the judgment amount to determine the extent to which an admitted breach by the tenant affects monies owed to the landlord.

Separation-Of-Powers Lochnerism, Andrea Scoseria Katz

Fordham Law Review

One hundred and twenty years ago, in 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered one of the single most notorious opinions in history, striking down a New York labor law for violating the right to contract—a right found nowhere in the text of the Constitution. Though the era of Lochner v. New York is well past us, the judicial impulses that gave rise to the case remain. With a new champion in the Roberts Court, Lochnerism is alive and well, deployed in a new context to redefine the relationships between the president, Congress, federal agencies, and the courts.

Bringing together two …

Equality In Sentencing Mitigation, John B. Meixner Jr.

Fordham Law Review

As guilty-plea rates have skyrocketed, sentencing has become an increasingly important part of criminal procedure. With judges often wielding significant discretion at sentencing, a key question is how judges interpret mitigation: evidence about the defendant’s background or the case that supports a reduced sentence. Past empirical research—both experimental and in real-world cases—indicates that mitigation plays an important role in determining sentences. But does mitigation help everyone, or does it reinforce inequalities that frequently infect other areas of criminal procedure? Do low-income Black defendants with appointed counsel benefit from sentencing mitigation as much as wealthier White defendants with private attorneys? Do …

Ai Procurement As Regulatory Reconnaissance, Sam Adler

Fordham Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a black box technology in a black box industry. Some view AI as a life-changing technology capable of advancing society and perhaps even saving the world, while others fear its capacity to harm. Like Dr. Frankenstein, developers fear the unpredictability of their own creations; deployers fear the unknown risks of third-party AI tools that market pressures drive them to assume; members of civil society fear AI’s capacity to oppress the already oppressed and degrade trust in institutions; and everyday users fear the undisclosed potential of AI to cause harm by means they cannot readily comprehend. These …

Red, White-, And Blue-Collar Crime: Federal Sentencing Practices Among White-Collar And Blue-Collar Offenders, Henna Judge

Fordham Law Review

Under the current federal sentencing regime, district courts exercise immense amounts of discretion when sentencing. Though strict adherence to the U.S. Sentencing Commission Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) was once mandatory, courts must now use these Guidelines as an advisory starting point and make a series of fact-specific determinations when sentencing a defendant. Though judicial discretion in this realm aids in preventing undue reliance on Guidelines-range recommendations that can lack nuance, it also invites bias.

In recent years, scholars and courts alike have called attention to a potential disparity in the way blue-collar and white-collar offenders are sentenced. This Note examines relevant …

Settling On A Standard: Reviewing The Right To Self-Representation, Lauren Lipson

Fordham Law Review

Courts appoint counsel for indigent criminal defendants who cannot afford legal representation to uphold their Sixth Amendment rights. In its seminal waiver case, Faretta v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court elevated the corollary right—the right to self-representation—to constitutional status. In dicta, the Court created a standard by which defendants must waive their right to counsel “knowingly and intelligently” to proceed pro se. The Court subsequently sculpted the right to self-representation as it came to standby counsel and mental competency, but it never prescribed a precise waiver colloquy for district court judges to administer, causing the Faretta colloquy to look …

Decision In Art. 78 Proceeding - Azzollini, Stephan (2025-03-11)

Decisions in Art. 78 Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Sweat And Subjectivity Copyright Impulses, Danny Friedmann

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Generative artificial intelligence (gAI) is generating vast vol- umes of content, including visual art with minimal human effort that competes directly with visual artists and threatens to dilute human culture in the process. In response, courts and copyright offices are quietly reintroducing two doctrines long considered incompatible with modern copyright: sweat of the brow, which rewards labor over originality, and aesthetic discrimination, which risks conditioning protection on perceived merit.

This article is the first to demonstrate how legal authorities are reintroducing these discredited doctrines under the guise of regulating AI-assisted outputs, thereby eroding the set of copyright doctrines accepted by …

How Ftc Data Security Cases Inform The Development Of Legally Accountable Software, Jeff Kosseff, Ellis Fenske, Christopher Brown, Daniel S. Roche

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Over the past two decades, the Federal Trade Commission has brought dozens of enforcement actions against companies for failing to adequately secure customers’ personal information. The actions typically result in a consent decree, in which the company agrees to improve its data security practices and provide the FTC with oversight of those improvements. When the FTC first brought data security cases, its orders generally required the companies to adopt “reasonable” data security programs. But a 2018 Eleventh Circuit opinion, LabMD v. FTC, requires the orders to contain far more specific data security requirements. In this Article, we conduct an in-depth …

Where Did All The Genericide Cases Go? And Should They Be Gone For Good?, Daniela Camacho

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Trademarks are all around us. It would be difficult to go an entire day without encountering a trademark—In fact, three-fourths of the words we use in our day-to-day conversations have been claimed as trademarks by various companies for various products. Often, we don’t even recognize all the marks we come across as trademarks. Words such as “aspirin,” “escalator,” and “trampoline” were all once trademarks. Over time, these words began to signify the product more than the producer; Because the marks could no longer identify the product’s source as trademarks are supposed to, the marks suffered “genericide” and were cancelled.

In …

Ramirez V. Garcia

All Decisions

In this nonrenewal of tenancy holdover proceeding, the landlord moved to strike the tenant's jury demand. The court granted the landlord's motion, holding that the tenant waived the right to a jury trial by asserting counterclaims seeking equitable relief, including a declaratory judgment to permanently reduce future rent from $1,300 to $725 and overcharge damages. The court found that the rent adjustment counterclaim was equitable in nature and not merely incidental to the demand for monetary damages, thus triggering a waiver of the jury trial right under CPLR § 4101.

East 93rd St Associates Lp V. Walters

All Decisions

In this nonpayment proceeding, the tenant moved for summary judgment seeking to bar the landlord from collecting rent under MDL § 302-a due to a rent-impairing violation and asserting a harassment counterclaim. The court denied summary judgment on the MDL § 302-a claim, ruling that the tenant failed to conclusively prove that HPD mailed the notice of violation to the landlord, a material element of the defense. The harassment claim, based on the landlord's repeated failure to make repairs, was also denied as an issue of fact existed regarding the tenant's alleged refusal to provide access. The case was adjourned …

Remarks, Amassador Abubakar Jidda

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Hcpo Way: Resolving Claims Through Cooperation, Anna Rubin

Fordham Law Review

The Nazi regime systematically stripped Jews and other persecuted groups of property through a framework of laws that gave their spoliation a veneer of legality. Postwar restitution programs, though groundbreaking in their efforts to provide individual victims with either compensation or the return of their property, were hampered by strict legal limitations, inconsistent procedures, and the slow pace of resolution. Contemporary restitution efforts increasingly recognize that legal avenues alone cannot fully redress these injustices. This Essay examines the work of the Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) of the New York State Department of Financial Services, which has developed a model …

Recalibrating Risk Under Dobbs, Yvonne Lindgren, Michelle Oberman

Fordham Law Review

In response to mounting evidence of the devastating harms patients have experienced under abortion bans, abortion opponents and the Supreme Court of Texas have argued that the bans are clear but that doctors are willfully refusing to provide care. Instead of reforming the bans, they argue that doctors should be sued in medical malpractice for their failure to meet the standard of care. This Article interrogates that claim, investigating whether the crisis in reproductive healthcare that has resulted from delayed and denied care can be remedied by suing doctors. Specifically, can medical malpractice litigation provide guardrails against the erosion in …

Competition, Comity, And Confusion: Reconciling The Ftaia’S Import Exclusion With Its Direct Effects Provision, Elliot Lam

Fordham Law Review

The debate surrounding the Sherman Act’s extraterritorial scope represents a tension between two competing objectives: protecting the U.S. economy from foreign anticompetitive conduct on one hand and respecting the sovereign authority of other nation-states on the other. Applying U.S. law abroad risks undermining sovereign authority by regulating foreign economies, though such regulation appears necessary in some cases to protect U.S. consumers.

Congress’s attempt to square these objectives through enacting the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act of 1982 (FTAIA) failed to settle the matter. The statute left courts with two new questions: how to distinguish “import” from “nonimport” commerce, and how …

When The Taxpayers Are Not Innocent: The Need For Punitive Damages Against Municipalities Under The Fair Housing Act, Charlotte Saltzman

Fordham Law Review

Combatting housing discrimination by municipalities is a core function of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Courts disagree, however, as to whether punitive damages can be awarded against municipal defendants. The purpose of this Note is twofold. First, it compares the Second Circuit’s recent decision in Gilead Community Services, Inc. v. Town of Cromwell, which held that punitive damages were appropriate against the Town of Cromwell, with the reasoning of district courts that came to the opposite conclusion in reliance on § 1983 precedent. Second, notwithstanding the sufficiency of the statutory analysis, it evaluates the public policy concerns of awarding …

Parco V. Fisch

All Decisions

The court denied the tenant's motion to dismiss a holdover petition, finding the predicate notice sufficient despite lacking detailed small landlord exemption proof. The landlord was permitted to amend the petition to include Good Cause Eviction Law (GCEL) small landlord exemption information required by RPL § 214(1), as such pleading defects are amendable. The tenant's motion for leave to file an answer was largely granted, and limited discovery was ordered regarding the landlord's claimed exemption and the tenant's harassment counterclaims, while overly broad discovery demands were stricken.

Gvs Props. Ii, Llc V. Walton

All Decisions

A landlord initiated a holdover proceeding, alleging occupants were licensees. The tenants moved to dismiss, contending they were tenants at sufferance or at will, thus requiring a 30-day notice of termination under RPL § 228, not the 10-day notice served. The landlord argued a prior Appellate Division decision, which found tenants were not rent-stabilized, estopped this claim. The court disagreed, holding that prior findings did not preclude the tenants from arguing non-licensee status. Recognizing the tenants had exclusive possession, the court determined they were improperly classified as licensees, rendering the 10-day notice insufficient and dismissing the petition without prejudice.

Chan V. Encalada

All Decisions

In a nonpayment proceeding, the landlord's petition was dismissed. After a trial on tenant's counterclaims, the court found for the tenant, awarding a $20,000 rent abatement for breach of warranty of habitability due to conditions like damaged floors, mold, lack of heat/cooking gas, and pests. The tenant also proved harassment, receiving $1,000 in compensatory damages and $35,000 in punitive damages, citing the landlord's omission of essential services demonstrating intent or malice, including physical assaults. The court also ordered the landlord to correct all outstanding DHPD violations.

Affirmative Litigation - Allen, Dale (2025-04-17)

Affirmative Litigation

No abstract provided.

57 Elmhurst, Llc V. Perez Tamay

All Decisions

A landlord commenced a holdover proceeding against a rent-stabilized tenant alleging lease violations, including keeping an e-bike with a lithium battery, installing a clothing line partition, and housing additional occupants without consent. The tenant moved to dismiss the petition. The court granted the motion, finding the termination notice fatally defective for using boilerplate language and failing to allege specific post-cure facts demonstrating the breaches persisted after the cure date. Furthermore, the court held that the landlord's illegal sublet claim was deficient as it failed to plead a contractual agreement between the tenant and the occupants, deeming them at most lawful …

Boulevard Together Master Tenant V. Fermin

All Decisions

In this holdover proceeding; the tenant; an occupant of a Project Based Section 8 property after an unsuccessful remaining family member grievance; moved for summary judgment. The court granted the tenant's motion and dismissed the case because the landlord failed to serve the required VAWA forms with the notice of termination. The court held that the definition of "tenant" under the remedial VAWA statute must be interpreted broadly to include occupants who remain in possession after an unsuccessful remaining family member grievance; thus obligating the landlord to provide the VAWA notice.

Administrative Appeal Decision - Ramos-Mondroy, Yovany (2025-06-11)

Parole Administrative Appeal Decisions

No abstract provided.

Administrative Appeal Decision - Austin, Patrick (2022-03-04)

Parole Administrative Appeal Decisions

No abstract provided.

West End Avenue Equities, Llc V. Osorio-Sorondo

All Decisions

In this non-payment proceeding, the court issued a mixed decision on cross-motions. The landlord's motion to strike several of the tenant's affirmative defenses was partially granted (striking four defenses and one counterclaim) and partially denied (preserving others, including rent-stabilization and overcharge claims). The landlord's request for use and occupancy was denied, but the petition was allowed to be amended to date. The tenant's motion for discovery on the apartment's regulatory status and overcharge claim was granted, as an unexplained rent increase raised a question of fact about the rent history's reliability, enabling a deeper review.

Ceylon Leasing; Lp V. Ventura

All Decisions

In this nonpayment proceeding; the court held a traverse hearing after the tenant moved to vacate a default judgment. Both the process server and the tenant were deemed credible. However; the court found the landlord failed to prove proper in-hand service of process by a preponderance of the evidence; citing a significant discrepancy between the tenant's physical appearance and the description in the affidavit of service; which aligned more closely with the tenant's mother. As the landlord did not move to amend the service type; the court could not sua sponte deem it substitute service. Consequently; personal jurisdiction over the …

Clarke V. Haliman

All Decisions

In a holdover proceeding, the tenant moved to vacate a prior stipulation of settlement and dismiss the petition, arguing the apartment was rent-stabilized. The court granted the tenant's motion, vacating the stipulation, judgment, and warrant. The court found that the building, constructed before 1974, de facto contained six housing accommodations, evidenced by Department of Buildings violations for cellar units and six mailboxes, despite the landlord's claim of four legal units. Consequently, the apartment was subject to rent stabilization, and the landlord's petition, based on lease expiration for an unregulated unit, failed to state a ground for eviction and was dismissed.

Westminster Apts. Llc V. Deetjen

All Decisions

In this nuisance/breach of lease holdover proceeding, the tenant moved to dismiss, arguing the landlord's petition was defective for failure to serve a 30-day termination notice under the federal CARES Act, as the property had a federally backed mortgage. The court denied the motion, holding that the CARES Act's 30-day notice requirement applies exclusively to non-payment proceedings, not to holdover proceedings based on nuisance or lease breach. The court found that subsections (b) and (c) of 15 U.S.C. § 9058 must be read in unison, and the notice provision (c) is implicitly limited by subsection (b)'s express reference to non-payment …

14th Street Associates L.P. V. Przystup

All Decisions

In this holdover proceeding alleging the tenant's objectionable conduct due to noxious odors, the tenant filed a multi-part motion. The court denied the tenant's motion to dismiss, finding the landlord's predicate notices sufficiently particular regarding the nature and dates of the alleged odors. However, the court largely granted the tenant's motion to compel a bill of particulars, holding that identifying information of complaining tenants constituted amplification of the landlord's claims. Information about the landlord's agents, however, was deemed evidentiary and beyond the scope. The court denied the tenant's motion for discovery, finding no ample need, and the case was scheduled …