Digital Commons Network^™

Mujica V. Baez

All Decisions

In a holdover proceeding brought by the landlord against the tenant in a rent stabilized apartment, the tenant successfully challenged the service of the petition on the grounds that the landlord did not comply with the Williams Consent Decree. The court ruled that the landlord must serve NYCHA, the tenant's Section 8 administrator, by overnight mail in addition to serving the tenant by regular mail.

J.R. Bronze Corp. V. Watson

All Decisions

In this holdover nuisance proceeding, the landlord failed to prove that the tenant's alleged unsanitary disposal of cat waste affected other tenants or the building. The court found no evidence of ongoing nuisance conduct and dismissed the case, underscoring the need for a consistent pattern of objectionable behavior to substantiate such claims.

Thurman V. Sullivan Props. L.P.

All Decisions

The Appellate Division affirmed the denial of the landlord's motion to dismiss the market-rate tenant's claims that the apartment was illegally deregulated after the last rent-controlled tenant vacated in 2005. Although lease documents showed the rent exceeded the deregulation threshold, they did not utterly refute allegations of wrongful deregulation. While a fair market rent appeal is time-barred after 4 years of vacancy, this plenary action challenging the apartment's deregulated status is not subject to that limitation and may examine rental history beyond 4 years. A tenant can challenge an apartment's deregulated status at any time during tenancy.

Scher V. 698 D Realty Llc

All Decisions

In a holdover-breach of lease case, the court ruled in favor of the landlord, dismissing the tenant's claim for a declaration that the apartment is rent stabilized, acknowledging the proper means of calculating rent overcharge per recent Court of Appeals decisions. The court declared the lawful stabilized rent and granted the landlord's motion for summary judgment on various claims, while denying the tenant's cross-motion for summary judgment.

Schwartz V. 170 W. End Owners Corp.

All Decisions

The Appellate Division, First Department affirmed the Supreme Court's decision granting the landlord's motion for summary judgment to dismiss nuisance and negligence claims in The Tenant's amended complaint against 170 West End Owners Corp. The court ruled that The Tenant failed to present sufficient evidence linking her medical problems to conditions in her apartment, and her claims for property damage lacked factual support. The court also rejected The Tenant's attempt to recover damages for her daughter's injuries.

In The Matter Of 57 Elmhurst, Llc

All Decisions

The DHCR affirmed the Rent Administrator's order granting a permanent rent reduction of $50 per month due to the landlord's modification of the lobby area, which reduced the available space and constituted a decrease in required services. This case highlights that tenants are entitled to a rent reduction for the loss of required services and that the DHCR has the authority to determine the appropriate amount of reduction on a case-by-case basis.

Mauro Et Al. V. 99 John St., Llc.

All Decisions

The tenant sued the landlord for rent overcharge in a rent-stabilized apartment. The court ruled in favor of the landlord, finding that the landlord correctly calculated the overcharge and refunded it to the tenant, with interest. The court also dismissed the tenant's claims for treble damages and attorney's fees because there was no evidence of willful overcharge. The court awarded the landlord use and occupancy for the difference between the rent paid by the tenants and the legal rent during the pendency of the lawsuit.

Moore V. Greystone Props. 81 Llc

All Decisions

In a Rent Stabilized tenancy dispute, the landlord filed a pre-answer motion against the tenant alleging non-payment of rent and breach of lease. The court, however, granted the motion in favor of the tenant, highlighting the landlord's failure to provide adequate evidence supporting the claims. This case underscores the importance of substantiating claims in landlord-tenant disputes, where the burden of proof lies heavily on the landlord.

West 92nd Assoc. Llc V. Hussein

All Decisions

In a Holdover-Lease Expiration case, the court granted the tenant's motion for summary judgment, finding that the landlord's misstatement of lease expiration date and failure to provide a proper renewal lease offer warranted dismissal of the petition. The court declined to issue an advisory opinion on the requirement of serving an initial vacancy lease, leaving it to legislative discretion.

Race, Racial Bias, And Imputed Liability Murder, Perry Moriearty, Kat Albrecht, Caitlin Glass

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Right To Stable Employment: Lessons From The U.S. Virgin Islands, Anthony M. Ciolli

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

When You Cannot “Look Both Ways”: Accessible Pedestrian Signals And The Ada, Becky Egan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Beyond Bars: Rethinking Substance Use Criminalization In Federal Supervised Release, Emilia E. Mcmanus

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fostering Faith: Religion And Inequality In The History Of Child Welfare Placements, Elizabeth D. Katz

Fordham Law Review

Each year in the United States, approximately 700,000 children live in foster care. Many of these children are placed in religiously oriented homes recruited and overseen by faith-based agencies (FBAs). This arrangement—as well as the scope and operation of child welfare services more broadly—is at a crucial moment of reckoning. Scholars and advocates focused on children’s rights and family integrity maintain that the child welfare system, increasingly termed the “family policing system,” harms children, families, and communities through unnecessary and racist child removal that is partly motivated by perverse financial incentives. Some call for abolition. Meanwhile, in a largely separate …

How Local Government Can Protect Workers’ Rights Even When States Do Not Want Them To: Opportunities For Local Creativity And Persistence Despite Double Preemption, Terri Gerstein, Lijia Gong

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Protecting Workers As Consumers And Consumers From Workers In New York City, Louis Cholden-Brown

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

We Built This City: Generative Ai, Copyright, And The Built Environment, Talin Ghazarian

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

In Pursuit Of Meaningful Civil Representation: Advocacy Strategy Proposals For An Integrated Civil Gideon And Legal Empowerment Approach, Sophia T. Slater

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction For Pro Se Litigants To Appealing Parole Denials, Parole Preparation Project, Michelle L. Lewin

All Categories

No abstract provided.

Nondelegation And The Legislative Versus Administrative Exactions Divide: Why Legislatively Imposed Exactions Do Not Require A More Searching Standard Of Review, Hunter Dominick

Fordham Law Review

As the United States continues to grow and urbanize, local governments have tried to manage this growth to mitigate the external impacts that new developments can cause. One method by which state and local governments seek to control growth within their borders is by imposing conditions on the issuance of building permits—otherwise known as exactions. Exactions, however, face federal constitutional limits under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.

In Nollan v. California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. City of Tigard, the U.S. Supreme Court restricted exactions in …

Burden Of The Bargain: Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel Claims In The Absence Of A Plea Offer, Sriram H. Ramesh

Fordham Law Review

The modern criminal justice system in the United States is a “system of pleas.” Plea bargains have largely supplanted trials as the primary method of resolving criminal proceedings in this country. Acknowledging their prevalence, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel extends to the plea-bargaining process. Thus, defendants may bring ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) claims for alleged ineffectiveness during the plea-bargaining phase.

In two companion cases, Missouri v. Frye and Lafler v. Cooper, the Court held that its two-pronged test for IAC, laid out in Strickland v. Washington, …

Of Another Mind: Ai And The Attachment Of Human Ethical Obligations, Katherine B. Forrest

Fordham Law Review

We are entering a new world. A world in which we humans will be confronted with our intellectual limitations as we watch the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) that we have created meet and exceed our capabilities. I have a few predictions about this—based first on how technology changes occur, with a layer of how human nature reacts to those changes.

My first prediction is that we may not initially recognize AI’s actual capabilities. We will find ways of describing what AI can do as somehow mimicry—the advances of a stochastic parrot, perhaps; we will not want to recognize our …

Educating Deal Lawyers For The Digital Age, Heather Hughes

Fordham Law Review

Courses and programs that address law and emerging technologies are proliferating in U.S. law schools. Technology-related issues pervade the curriculum. This Essay presents two instances in which new technologies present challenges for deal lawyers. It explores how exposing students to closing opinions practice can prepare them to engage these challenges. Both examples involve common commercial contexts and lessons relevant to students of business associations and of the Uniform Commercial Code. The first, which deals with enforceability opinion letters, presents technical legal difficulties arising from recent developments in law and technology. The second, involving complex doctrines at the heart of financial …

Fairness And Fair Use In Generative Ai, Matthew Sag

Fordham Law Review

Although we are still a long way from the science fiction version of “artificial general intelligence” that thinks, feels, and refuses to “open the pod bay doors,” recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) have captured the public’s imagination and lawmakers’ interest. We now have large language models (LLMs) that can pass the bar exam, carry on (what passes for) a conversation about almost any topic, create new music, and create new visual art. These artifacts are often indistinguishable from their human-authored counterparts and yet can be produced at a speed and scale surpassing human ability.

“Generative AI” …

The First Religious Charter School: A Viable Option For School Choice Or Prohibited Under The State Action Doctrine And Religion Clauses?, Julia Clementi

Fordham Law Review

After the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses were ratified, church and state became increasingly divorced from one another, as practicing religion became a private activity on which the government could not encroach. This separation, however, was slow, and much credit is owed to the U.S. Supreme Court for its efforts to disentangle the two. One particular area in which the Supreme Court exercised its influence was the U.S. education system; the Court invoked the Religion Clauses and neutrality principles to rid public schools of religious influences and ensure that private religious schools could partake in government programs that were available to …

Long-Range Analogizing After Bruen: How To Resolve The Circuit Split On The Federal Felon-In-Possession Ban, Sean Phillips

Fordham Law Review

In 2023, over the course of one week, two U.S. courts of appeals ruled on Second Amendment challenges to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), the federal statute prohibiting firearm possession for those convicted of felonies. Both courts applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s “history and tradition” test from New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen. In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, criminal defendant Edell Jackson did not succeed. There, the court found that the nation’s history and tradition supported the validity of a law banning firearm possession by felons, regardless of the details of their …

Chillo V. Lopez

All Decisions

In this Nonpayment case, the court granted the tenant's motion to vacate a pro se stipulation entered into during litigation. The stipulation was vacated because the court found that the tenant, who was unrepresented at the time, entered into it improvidently. The petition filed by the landlord was defective as it alleged inconsistent facts regarding the regulatory status of the apartment, which formed a viable defense for the tenant. As a result, the court vacated the stipulation and returned the parties to their original positions, setting aside the judgment and warrant. The proceeding was adjourned for further motions, and the …

Bradhurst Associates L.L.C. V. Clayton

All Decisions

In a non-payment case, landlord sought to collect rent from the tenant. The tenant, represented by counsel, filed a motion to vacate the default judgment, which was granted. The court also allowed the addition of an occupant as a respondent. Key Legal Points: The court exercised discretion in vacating the default judgment, considering the facts of the case and the equities involved. Additionally, it granted the motion to add an occupant as a respondent, emphasizing due process requirements.

Matter Of Jankowitz V. New York State Office Of Temporary Disability Assistance

All Decisions

In this Article 78 proceeding, landlord challenged determinations by the Office of Temporary Disability Assistance (OTDA) regarding his Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) applications. OTDA cross-moved to dismiss or transfer venue. The court granted the motion to transfer venue to Albany County, emphasizing that the material events in such a determination are limited to the OTDA's office where deliberations occurred, which was in Albany. Landlord's challenge to the determinations was dismissed, and tenant substantially won the motion, leading to a change in venue.

The California Supreme Court Replaces Gingles Prong One, Bruce A. Wessel, Jason D. D'Andrea

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

No abstract provided.