DAVID B. SAXE
Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman, LLP, New York (Joseph Burden and Madga L. Cruz of counsel), for appellant. Benjamin R. Kaplan, New York, for respondents. DAVID B. SAXE, J.P., JAMES M. CATTERSON, ROLANDO T. ACOSTA, SHEILA ABDUS–SALAAM, NELSON S. ROMÁN, JJ.
CATTERSON, J.
In this landlord-tenant dispute, we find that the plaintiff-landlord has the right to bring an action for common-law nuisance in Supreme Court in the face of defendants-tenants' alleged four-year campaign of premeditated and malicious harassment designed to prevent the landlord from collecting lawful rents and effectively managing and operating its building. The landlord's complaint includes a litany of allegations amounting to 159 paragraphs in 43 pages, and the landlord seeks injunctive relief in the form of ejectment of the tenants as well as damages in the amount of $45,205.79 and punitive damages in the amount of $500,000.
We note at the outset that this action is clearly distinguishable from the type of action brought by a landlord in Housing Court where nuisance is a statutorily authorized basis for eviction, and where the action is generally brought for the protection and safety of a third party, namely the other tenants of a building.