Ruh-roh--RAGGY!!!
A Long Island court has found Fredo's brother's eviction moratorium unconstitutional, and court guidance issued by Chief Justice Lawrence Marks stopping all evictions until at least July 7th invalid.
"In a June 30 decision, Judge C. Stephen Hackeling addressed the conflict between guidance from the New York administrative judge and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on what evictions are permitted. Hackeling states that the court’s guidance can’t overrule the governor’s executive order, but also identifies certain aspects of the order as “invalid.”
As part of his May order, Cuomo allowed some evictions to resume last week, namely those unrelated to financial hardship caused by Covid-19. This allowed holdover cases, which are initiated for reasons other than non-payment of rent, to resume. But Chief Justice Lawrence Marks issued guidance halting all eviction proceedings until at least July 7.
Hackeling called such guidance an “unconstitutional usurpation of the Legislative and Executive prerogatives and powers” because it seeks to “contradict, limit, or expand” an executive order."
https://therealdeal.com/2020/07/02/j...=feature_posts
Ruling comes from a lower court, and probably is likely to be appealed by state once they sort themselves out. Il Duce signed that "Safe Harbor" tenant act into law earlier this week which now gives some residential tenants protection from eviction. However since that act only awards monetary non-possessory judgments, expect LL's to challenge in court.
Monetary judgments aren't worth the paper they are printed upon for housing court non-payment matters. Cases that reach court even in regular times have tenants who don't have assets or much money (otherwise they would have paid back rent and cured), but at least LL could get back the apartment, stanching further unpaid rent. Now a LL is going to be forced to keep these tenants while some sort of "agreement" is worked out. If they don't pay back rent per terms of agreement much less current, they still cannot be touched.
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