Conason v. Megan Holding, LLC, 25 N.Y.3d 1 (2015)

Citation: Conason v. Megan Holding, LLC, 25 N.Y.3d 1 (2015)
Parent Document: Conason v. Megan Holding, LLC, 25 N.Y.3d 1 (2015)
Jurisdiction: New York (state)
Effective Date: 2015-02-24
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/5643825/conason-v-megan-holding-llc/ ↗

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Significantly, the Thorntons did not sue the owner within “four years of having first paid an allegedly unlawful rent,” as defendants and the dissent insist CPLR 213-a mandates. Indeed, they waited more than seven years. Defendants point out that the Thorntons sued Baron, the tenant, within four years after they commenced their tenancy. We specifically “reject[ed],” however, “[the Thorntons’] contention that their amended complaint against [the owner] should relate back to the original complaint filed against [Baron] in October 1996” (id. at 180 n 2). And we at least implicitly rejected the owner’s protest that because the Thorntons’ overcharge claim arose in 1992, we were flouting the legislature’s intent, when it enacted the RRRA, to make sure that owners were not left forever potentially liable for overcharge claims; specifically, we declined to read the four-year limitations period in a way that would allow “a landlord whose fraud remains undetected for four years— however willful or egregious the violation — [to], simply by virtue of having filed a registration statement, transform an illegal rent into a lawful assessment that would form the basis for all future rent increases” (id. at 181).

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