Tuvim v. 10 E. 30 Corp.
Tuvim v. 10 E. 30 Corp.
Opinion of the Court
This case resembles Richards v. Kaskel (32 N Y 2d 524) in that the plaintiffs are tenants in a rent-controlled apartment building, located in Manhattan, who have brought a class action seeking a judgment declaring that a plan to co-operate the building never became effective to extinguish their rights as statutory tenants. Thus, in a complaint containing five causes of action, the plaintiffs seek a declaration that the plan is null and void because it failed to comply with the applicable provisions of New York City’s Bent, Eviction and Behabilitation Begulations of the Housing and Development Administration (§ 55, subd. c., par. [3], el. [a]) promulgated under the City Bent and Behabilitation Law (Administrative Code of City of New York, § Y51-1.0 et seq.).
The plan’s sponsor, the defendant Washington Park Urban Benewal Corp., and the other corporate defendants denied the material allegations of the complaint, interposed a counterclaim for damages and, following the plaintiffs’ application for an
The court at Special Term properly dismissed two of the three causes of action against the sponsor for a declaratory judgment as well as the one against the Attorney-General.
The Appellate Division reached the right result. Quite obviously, the plaintiffs’ cause of action for damages cannot, as the court held, be sustained, since they neither purchased apartments nor expended money in reliance upon anything which the defendants did or said. Moreover, although the plaintiffs — contrary to the statement in the Appellate Division opinion (38 A D 2d, at p. 896) —were entitled to bring a class action challenging the methods by which the sponsor obtained approval of its plan to co-operate their building (see Richards v. Kaskel, 32 N Y 2d 524, supra), summary judgment was, nevertheless, properly granted dismissing the class action counts for the reason that the plaintiffs failed completely to demonstrate the existence of a triable issue of fact in support of their claim that the
The order appealed from should be affirmed, without costs.
Judges Burke, Breitel, Jasen, G-abrielli, Jones and Wachtler concur.
Order affirmed.
. Richards v. Kaskel (32 N Y 2d 524, supra), we note, involved New York City’s other emergency rent statute — the Rent Stabilization Law of 1969 (Administrative Codé, § X X51-1.0 et seq.).
. In dismissing the cause against the Attorney-General, the court pointed out that an amendment to the plan filed some months after its original acceptance, did not extend the time to challenge that acceptance, since the “ non-conformities [alleged to exist in the original plan] do not in any way relate to the scope or content of the amendment.”
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Harry Tuvim, Individually and on Behalf of All Tenants in the Building, Known as 150 West 79th Street in the County and City of New York, and All Other Prospective Purchasers under the Said Premises Similarly Situated v. 10 E. 30 Corp., Respondents-Appellants Louis J. Lefkowitz, as Attorney-General of the State of New York, and Brown, Harris, Stevens, Inc.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published