Deary v. Keith

The plaintiff, a statutory tenant, sues his landlord, pursuant to the provisions of section 234 of the Real Property Law, to recover the reasonable value of attorney’s fees necessarily expended in defending an unmeritorious summary proceeding previously brought — and lost — by the landlord.

The last lease between the parties was made in 1959; and although it expired in 1961, many of its provisions carried over into the statutory tenancy (Barrow Realty Corp. v. Village Brew*111ery Rest., 272 App. Div. 262; Stakser v. Rodriguez, 23 Misc 2d 954). Among them was the obligation imposed on the tenant to…