Elisau Estates v. Schrager

*290OPINION OF THE COURT

Marshall C. Berger, J.

This case raises the issue of whether discrimination in the leasing of commercial space in violation of section 296 (5) (b) of the Executive Law is an affirmative defense to a holdover summary proceeding. Here petitioner is a corporation owned by ethnic Chinese while respondent, a white man, owns a liquor store in premises on the fringes of Chinatown which his family has rented since 1923. Respondent contends that petitioner’s decision not to negotiate a new lease with him at the end of his prior lease was motivated by prejudice in favor of Chinese…