Credit: Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Adobe Stock Be Careful What You Stip For: 'Liggett v. Lewitt Realty LLC'
The ruling from New York's highest state court, although straightforward on its face, has important implications for both long-existing settlement agreements and when considering drafting future agreements settling disputes in the context of the Rent Stabilization Law.
September 06, 2024 at 03:14 PM
8 minute read
What You Need to Know
- The NY Court of Appeals has held that a stipulation of settlement entered into by a landlord and future tenant more than two decades ago, to settle a holdover proceeding, was void as against public policy.
- The decision provides a clear warning and guidance that any stipulation of settlement, to be enforceable, must never contain an express waiver of any rights held by tenants under the rent laws.
- The decision invites challenges to any stipulations, no matter how old, that contain express waivers of rights.
In June 2024, the Court of Appeals decided Liggett v. Lewitt Realty LLC, — NY3d –, 2024 NY Slip Op 03378 (2024), reversing the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, and holding that a so-ordered stipulation of settlement entered into by a landlord and future tenant more than two decades ago, to settle a holdover proceeding in March 2000, was void as against public policy, and therefore could not provide a basis in the 2021 action for the landlord to establish that the subject apartment was properly deregulated from rent stabilization decades earlier. The ruling from New York's highest state court, although straightforward on its face, has important implications for both long-existing settlement agreements and when considering drafting future agreements settling disputes in the context of the Rent Stabilization Law.
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