Perez v Ruggiero (2012 NY Slip Op 50567(U))
[*1]
Perez v Ruggiero
2012 NY Slip Op 50567(U) [35 Misc 3d 126(A)]
Decided on March 28, 2012
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This opinion is uncorrected and will not be
published in the printed Official Reports.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 March 28, 2012
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, SECOND
DEPARTMENT, 9th and 10th JUDICIAL DISTRICTS
PRESENT: : LaCAVA, J.P., MOLIA and IANNACCI, JJ
2011-542 W C.
Arnold Perez and Benita Perez, Appellants,
—
against
John Ruggiero and Maria Maffetone, Respondents.
Appeal from a judgment of the City Court of Yonkers, Westchester County (Charles D.
Wood, J.), entered July 2, 2009. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, insofar as appealed from,
implicitly dismissed plaintiffs' claim to recover security deposits.
ORDERED that the judgment, insofar as appealed from, is reversed, without costs, and
the matter is remitted to the City Court for a new trial with respect to plaintiffs' claim to recover
security deposits.
In this small claims action, plaintiffs, the purchasers of a building from defendant John
Ruggiero, seek to recover, among other things, the security deposits which the tenants in the
building had paid upon the commencement of their leases. The evidence adduced at a nonjury
trial established that, at the closing, Ruggiero had provided plaintiffs with an affidavit which
stated that no security deposits existed. Plaintiffs later ascertained that the tenants had, in fact,
provided security deposits. Ruggiero testified that he had stated in his affidavit that there were no
security deposits because he had used the tenants' security deposits as setoffs against, among