Levine v. Brooklyn Cornell Utilities, Inc.

This is a summary proceeding instituted by the landlords to recover their premises on the grounds that the tenant refused to execute a renewal lease. The tenant interposed the defense that the rent demanded in the renewal lease was in excess of 15% over the rent the tenant was paying on March 1, 1943., The tenant occupied the premises in question for séventeen or eighteen years prior to this proceeding. In March, 1943, it occupied the premises under a lease with the then owner, which lease provided for a monthly rent of $100. Thereafter the premises were sold to the present landlord who also…