East Eleventh Street Associates v. Breslow

McCooe, J. P.

(dissenting). I respectfully dissent. The issue is not whether a rent-stabilized tenant can be forced to accept a renewal lease with a different provision than the expired lease. The law is clear that she cannot. The issue is whether a tenant can accept the benefit of the new provision, ratify it and more than 10 years later seek to disaffirm the provision when the benefit is unavailable to her. The second issue is whether the parties can contract to pay legal fees, independent of the lease.

The 1985 renewal lease signed by the tenant, an attorney who has represented herself…