Renter Defeats Pet Eviction

Landlord attempted to evict tenant who owned a pitbull as an emotional support animal. On December 8, 2017, a tenant moved into a rent-controlled apartment located at 280 East Burnside Avenue in the Bronx.  The tenant signed a two-year lease which contained a conspicuous provision prohibiting pets on the premises without landlord consent.  In December 2017, in an exchange of emails the tenant notified the building’s landlord that she owned a female pitbull named “Bella,” … <Read More>


Property Award Decreased By $6,934,487

City claimed condemned property designated as wetlands was overvalued at $10 million. In 1985, seven acres of property covering six blocks in the Oakwood Beach section of Staten Island was donated to a yeshiva. The yeshiva’s plans for the property included development of a school and synagogue. Due to fiscal setbacks and a freshwater wetland designation, the yeshiva in 1991 sought and the City approved a hardship exemption in development of the planned school and … <Read More>


Design of Roadway Blamed in Accident

Motorcyclist was killed when he made contact with another vehicle, lost control, and skidded approximately 95 feet until he struck a guardrail. On a clear dry afternoon Vincent Iovine drove a motorcycle east on Sunrise Highway in Nassau County traveling at a speed of 62 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour zone. At the same time, Guadalupe Carranca had stopped her car at a stop sign on Old Sunrise Highway. Carranca intended … <Read More>


Succession Rights Granted in Mitchell-Lama Co-op

Downs syndrome grand-nephew sought succession rights to Mitchell-Lama cooperative apartment. On February 3, 2012, the permanent tenant of Lindsay Park Housing Corp., a Mitchell-Lama affordable housing cooperative, died. Following her death, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development ruled that the grand-nephew, Haile King-Rubie, who resided with the deceased did not have succession rights to the apartment. Haile King-Rubie, who has Down syndrome, filed a petition to review this decision.


Remembering Nicholas Scoppetta

Nicholas Scoppetta, who passed away in March at age 83, represented the best in the City’s civic life. He often attended New York Law School events and was the featured speaker at a CityLaw Breakfast on September 12, 1997. At that time he headed the Administration for Children’s Services, and was deep in litigation with advocates for children who wanted the federal court to take over his agency. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had appointed Scoppetta … <Read More>


Reducing Racial Bias Embedded in Land Use Codes

Even though the Supreme Court struck down race-based land use controls over a hundred years ago in Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917) it has long been known that zoning continues to create or increase racial and economic segregation. Today communities across the U.S. are reexamining their zoning regulations to create more equal, equitable, inclusive, and resilient communities by removing requirements, limitations, or prohibitions that disproportionately and negatively impact individuals based on race … <Read More>