Representing a New York City landlord in a licensee holdover proceeding against the son of a deceased tenant of record, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., won a bench trial and achieved a judgment of possession and money.

The tenant of record died in 2021. Our client bought the Queens building in 2023. At that time, the apartment was occupied by the deceased tenant’s son. He was not paying rent and an investigation revealed that he may not have co-resided with his father before his father’s death.

We served the son a notice to quit to a licensee and commenced a holdover proceeding. The son appeared and interposed a succession defense. We moved for and were granted discovery. He produced virtually no documents and we moved for and won a conditional preclusion order, precluding him from introducing any documents at trial, which were not produced during discovery.

The trial took place over several days in March 2025.

The prior owner of the building testified on our behalf that he knew the father well, that the son grew up in the apartment but moved out years ago, and that the son only moved into the apartment after the father died. An agent of the current owner rounded out our prima facie case.

The son testified in the narrative, and called several family members as witnesses on his behalf, including his sister and mother. The mother testified that she co-resided with the tenant of record, but was impeached with subpoenaed leases and other records showing that she was the tenant of record and maintained a Con Edison account in her own name elsewhere, and also equivocated about the son’s whereabouts during the relevant time period. The mother also listed the other address for herself as informant on the tenant’s death certificate.

We also subpoenaed the tenant’s DRIE records, which showed that the tenant claimed that he lived alone.

On rebuttal we called a longstanding building resident who dispassionately and credibly testified that he knew the family well, including the son, that the son moved out of the apartment years ago, and that the father lived alone for several years before he died.

The judge found our witnesses highly credible and found that the son failed to establish his burden of proof to prove succession rights to the apartment.

The judge directed issuance of a judgment of possession and warrant of eviction for our client. The judge also awarded to our client a monetary judgment for use and occupancy from the time of our client’s purchase of the building through the trial.

Carolyn Rualo represented the client from inception of the proceeding and in trial preparation and Vladimir Mironenko conducted the trial.