Landlord gets sanctions against tenant for frivolous post-eviction motions.#19655Landlord sued to evict Mitchell-Lama tenant for performing unauthorized alterations in his apartment. The court ruled for landlord after an HPD HPD Honolulu Police Department (Honolulu County, Island of Oahu) HPD Housing Preservation and Development HPD Housing Preservation and Development (New York City Department) hearing authorized a certificate of eviction The removal of a tenant from possession of premises in which he or she resides or has a property interest done by a landlord either by reentry upon the premises or through a court action. . Tenant appealed, lost, and was evicted. Tenant then asked the court to stop landlord from rerenting the apartment until tenant could move his possessions. The court ruled against tenant. Tenant appealed and lost. Tenant and tenant's family members continued to make requests to the court to delay removal of their belongings and rerenting of the apartment. Landlord asked the court for attorney's fees attorney's fee n. the payment for legal services. It can take several forms: 1) hourly charge, 2) flat fee for the performance of a particular service (like $250 to write a will), 3) contingent fee (such as one-third of the gross recovery, and nothing if there is no and sanctions against tenant. The court ruled for landlord. From the date the appeals court upheld the judgment for landlord in 2003, until April 2007, when tenant finally moved his possessions from the apartment, tenant had four years to voluntarily remove his possessions. The court sanctioned tenant for motions made after April 2007, finding that they were frivolous Of minimal importance; legally worthless. A frivolous suit is one without any legal merit. In some cases, such an action might be brought in bad faith for the purpose of harrassing the defendant. and made in bad faith. Tenant was ordered to pay landlord $3,400. Bedford Gardens Co. LP v. Berkowitz: NYLJ NYLJ New York Law Journal , 5/31/07, p. 22, col. 1 (Civ. Ct. Kings; Kraus, J) |
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