Elnazer v Lopez (2009 NY Slip Op 52599(U))
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Elnazer v Lopez
2009 NY Slip Op 52599(U) [26 Misc 3d 126(A)]
Decided on December 15, 2009
Appellate Term, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau
pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
This opinion is uncorrected and will not be
published in the printed Official Reports.
Decided on December 15, 2009
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW
YORK
APPELLATE TERM: 2nd, 11th and 13th
JUDICIAL DISTRICTS
PRESENT: : GOLIA, J.P., PESCE and WESTON, JJ
2008-1769 RI C.
Farouk Elnazer, Appellant,
against
Alba Lopez, Respondent.
Appeal from a judgment of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Richmond County
(Mary Kim Dollard, J.), entered April 22, 2008. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, dismissed
plaintiff's cause of action and awarded defendant the principal sum of $5,000 on her
counterclaims.
ORDERED that the judgment is modified by striking the award to defendant of the
principal sum of $5,000 and by providing that the counterclaims are dismissed; as so modified,
the judgment is affirmed without costs.
Plaintiff commenced this small claims action to recover for breach of a lease agreement and
for property damage. Defendant asserted counterclaims seeking damages for personal injuries,
failure to provide proper repairs, breach of the warranty of habitability, loss of property and loss
of time from work. After a nonjury trial, the Civil Court dismissed plaintiff's cause of action and
awarded defendant the principal sum of $5,000 on her counterclaims. The instant appeal by
plaintiff ensued.
While the Civil Court failed to set forth its specific findings of fact and credibility
determinations and, thus, the basis for dismissal of plaintiff's cause of action is unclear, we find