Judge Javier Vargas
Tenant Wright sought dismissal of landlord’s chronic rent delinquency holdover action. Landlord served tenant a 10 day notice to terminate her tenancy arguing she violated a substantial obligation of her lease by chronically paying her rent late each month. It argued it commenced no less than 12 non-payment legal proceedings against Wright during the last 22 years. Wright argued landlord could not rely on nonpayment actions commenced against her over sic years before this proceeding, and alleged the three timely legal proceedings landlord may rely on were either settled by stipulations or concluded after only one appearance. The court agreed finding tenant demonstrated landlord failed to sufficiently establish a prima facie showing of a substantial obligation breach, noting out of the 12 legal actions landlord relied on in bringing this chronic rent delinquency action, nine should be barred from consideration under the statute of limitations. Also, it stated of the remaining three, only the third may serve as a proper predicate for this action as it resulted in a default against Wright. Tenant established landlord failed to allege the frequency and number of prior actions to show she substantially violated a material obligation of her 15 year tenancy, granting Wright dismissal of the petition.
