Defendant attacks this pleading for insufficiency and lack of particularization under CPLR 3016 (subd [b]). If I presume that defendant has stated the circumstances of the alleged fraud in as great a detail as they will lend themselves, then he has no cause of action for fraud. His claim simply is that when he commenced his tenancy defendant’s agents told him he could reside in the space. This is a knowing falsehood on which he relied.
To state a sufficient claim for fraud, a plaintiff must allege a defendant’s false representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity and with an intent that the plaintiff rely thereon. The plaintiff must in fact be ignorant of the falsity and must rely to his detriment on the representation. This must be the cause of his damage. (Reno v Bull, 226 NY 546, 550; Brown v Lockwood, 76 AD2d 721, 730; 24 NY Jur, Fraud and Deceit, §§ 14, 160, 161, 169.)
As a matter of law the fourth cause of action is deficient. Plaintiff fails to allege his ignorance of the false representation; nor could he very well do so. After all, he signed a lease that clearly stated the contrary. He could not, therefore, have relied to his detriment on the false representation in making his investment (24 NY Jur, Fraud and Deceit, § 169) and the alleged fraud was not the cause of his damages, if any. Besides, it remains to be determined whether the representation was false. If plaintiff ultimately prevails under the Loft Law, the representation that he would be permitted to reside there will prove accurate.
attorney’s FEES