Santiago-Monteverde v. Pereira (In Re Santiago-Monteverde)

Debtor-Appellant Mary Santiago-Mon-teverde appealed to this Court from a decision of the district court affirming the bankruptcy court’s ruling that her residential lease, rent-stabilized under New York’s Rent Stabilization Code, N.Y. Comp.Codes R. & Regs. tit. 9, §§ 2520 et seq., was not exempt from her bankruptcy estate as a “local public assistance benefit” within the meaning of New York Debtor and Creditor Law (“DCL”) § 282(2). We concluded that this question was an important one of unsettled New York law and certified it to the New York Court of Appeals, which accepted the certification.…