The clients – an elderly mother and her middle-aged son – came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. in a very precarious and complicated situation. They were in the midst of a contentious family dispute related to the decade-long ownership of the clients’ property in Brooklyn. The clients, who are the mother and half-brother of the Plaintiff, had commenced a lawsuit in NYS Supreme Court claiming, among other things, that Plaintiff is entitled to an ownership interest in the clients’ property. Plaintiff has also been living in the clients’ building for almost a decade with the mother, with whom there is an endless air of hostility. At this point, the relationship between Plaintiff and the clients has deteriorated probably beyond repair. Plaintiff continued a pattern of failing to make timely rent payments or performing certain obligations pursuant to the parties’ occupancy agreement.
Shortly after submitting fully briefed motion papers seeking to dismiss the Supreme Court litigation against the clients, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. learned that the mother was beginning to fear for her safety while Plaintiff refused to vacate the building. Unfortunately, the clients’ only recourse was to now seek an eviction of Plaintiff in Housing Court. Working on parallel tracks, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s attorneys rushed to Housing Court to commence an eviction proceeding against Plaintiff – now the Respondent in the Housing Court litigation.
Shortly after the eviction proceeding was filed in Housing Court, Plaintiff hastily submitted an Order to Show Cause in Supreme Court seeking to stay the Housing Court case. Given that Plaintiff sought emergency relief and the firm had a very limited amount of time to respond to the allegations contained in the Order to Show Cause, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s attorneys sprang to action. The firm immediately knew that if Plaintiff’s sought-after relief was granted, the clients would be placed in a perilous position with Plaintiff being allowed for years to remain in the building, while continuing to flout rent payment and residency obligations. Using carefully researched arguments and savvy lawyering techniques, the firm wasted no time and submitted its opposition papers, in a timely fashion, so that the Court had the opportunity to conduct its review of the facts and merits of the parties’ arguments much earlier in the litigation than is the normal time. Thus, the clients were able to avoid even a temporary order slowing down their proceeding.
Almost immediately, the Supreme Court issued an Order denying Plaintiff’s Order to Show Cause in its entirety. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s attorneys carefully crafted opposition papers, being supplemented by unique and persuasive arguments, convinced the Supreme Court that Housing Court is the only proper venue to litigate the issue of Plaintiff’s occupancy in the clients’ building.
While these cases are still being litigated vigorously in the Courts, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s zealous advocacy and ironclad knowledge of the law helped the clients achieve a significant favorable result. The clients are now able to rest relatively easy knowing that Plaintiff was unsuccessful in his attempts to delay the Housing Court proceeding and that this eviction case is moving forward full steam ahead.
Adam Leitman Bailey, Dov Treiman, Jennifer Milosavljevic, and William Pekarsky of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represent the owners of the building in the Supreme Court and Housing Court litigations.
