Grill, Biscone & Tare Victorious in Appeal
February 27, 2014 |David M. Grill, Joshua Tare and Merril Biscone successfully appealed a lower court decision that denied a landlord summary judgment in a summary holdover proceeding and, in overturning the lower court decision, the Appellate Term granted the landlord a judgment of possession. In Extell Belnord LLC v. Eldridge, 2014 NY Slip OP 50258(U), (App. Term, 1st Dept.), the Appellate Term held that, since the statutory tenants began residing elsewhere by 2000 and because the undertenant was found to have forged the signatures of the statutory tenants on leases for over a decade through 2011, the statutory tenants permanently vacated the subject premises upon the expiration of the last renewal lease in 2011. As a result, undertenant’s succession claim failed because he was unable to satisfy the requirement of demonstrating that he resided with either of the statutory tenants for the two year period prior to the expiration of the last renewal lease. Additionally, the Court noted that the forging of the statutory tenants’ names to the renewal lease was an independent basis for rejecting the undertenanant’s succession defense.
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