Park West Management Corp. v. Mitchell

New York Court of Appeals · 1979 · Property

PropertyLandlord-tenantImplied warranty of habitabilityresidential leasehabitabilityrent abatementsummary nonpayment proceedinghousing code violations

Facts

Petitioner owned Park West Village, a large apartment complex in Manhattan. During a 17-day strike, the complex lost its porters and handymen, incinerators were shut, garbage accumulated to first-floor window height, common areas were left uncleaned, exterminating and routine maintenance services were not performed, and other services were sporadically interrupted. The accumulated refuse caused noxious odors and conditions serious enough for the New York City Department of Health to declare a health emergency. Tenants withheld rent and asserted that these conditions breached the landlord's implied warranty of habitability.

Issue

Whether the conditions caused by the 17-day strike, including severe sanitation and maintenance failures, constituted a breach of the landlord's implied warranty of habitability under Real Property Law section 235-b. Also, if so, what measure of damages applies in a rent-withholding case.

Rule

In every residential lease, the landlord impliedly warrants that the premises and common areas are fit for human habitation, suitable for the uses reasonably intended by the parties, and free from conditions dangerous, hazardous, or detrimental to life, health, or safety. The landlord's duty to maintain habitable premises is unqualified, nondelegable, and nonwaivable, and extends to conditions caused by ordinary deterioration, employee work stoppages, acts of third parties, or natural disaster. Substantial housing, building, or sanitation code violations are prima facie evidence of uninhabitability, but the ultimate question is whether conditions materially affect tenants' health and safety; the proper measure of damages is the difference between the premises' fair market value as warranted and their value during the breach, which may be awarded as a rent abatement.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

Lena Ortiz rents an apartment in a six-story building in Brooklyn owned by Harbor Elm Properties. For three weeks, the landlord stops arranging garbage removal and hallway cleaning after its janitorial vendor quits, and trash accumulates in interior corridors while roaches spread through several floors.

If Lena withholds part of the rent in a nonpayment action, which is the strongest argument that the landlord breached the implied warranty of habitability?

Explanation. The majority held that a residential lease includes an implied warranty that both the premises and the common areas used in connection with them remain fit for human habitation and free from dangerous conditions affecting life, health, or safety. A landlord therefore breaches that warranty by failing to maintain common areas and sanitation services when the resulting condition materially affects tenants' health and safety, even if the immediate cause was a vendor's quitting or some other third-party breakdown. The landlord's duty is unqualified and nondelegable. By contrast, the warranty is not triggered by every trivial interruption of services, it does not require the tenant to prove total uninhabitability or to move out, and it expressly applies to dangerous conditions in common areas as well as inside the tenant's unit.