Case Notes

In the New York case of Berezanskly v. Daddy O's BBQ & Sports Bar Inc., L&T 53441/14, NYLJ 1202759979373, at *1 (Civ., RI, Decided June 3, 2016), a restaurant tenant who had failed to pay rent to its landlord for nearly two years was denied a stay of eviction.

The tenant's failure to pay the landlord nearly $200,000 had left the landlord without adequate funds to pay its mortgage, and the leased property had gone into foreclosure. The landlord sought payment from the tenant in a previous proceeding in which the tenant acknowledged it owed the landlord $168,000; that proceeding ended with a money judgment in the landlord's favor and a warrant of eviction against the tenant. The money was never paid to the landlord, however. In this later action, the receiver of the property wanted the tenant gone, but the tenant asked the court for a six-month reprieve because it was in negotiations to buy the mortgage notes from the bank that was foreclosing. The court was not amused and noted that the tenant had shown no evidence of payment on the landlord's money judgment, nor of quitting the property as it had been ordered to do.