Coincidently, petitioner's counsel posits that respondent's motion is procedurally defective since the Kohut affirmation is mislabeled and is an affidavit that is not notarized. The Court disagrees. Under the plain reading of the recently amended CPLR 2106, an affirmation with the mandated language may be submitted "in lieu of and with the same force and effect as an affidavit." Petitioners' argument is based on the outdated CPLR 2106 not the newly amended CPLR 2106. Additionally, the cases he cites in support of his position were decided prior to the amendment to CPLR 2106. Consequently, petitioner's argument that respondent's motion to dismiss must be denied in its entirety due to a procedurally defective "affidavit" is meritless.
The Court will turn to the respondents' arguments that the instant summary proceeding is in retaliation to complaints she made to several quasi-governmental and government agencies regarding various conditions in her apartment.