To the extent the motion court, in the context of its discovery ruling, appears to have held that appellants lack standing in the first instance to assert a statutory retaliatory eviction defense (“Respondents[-appellants] are not tenants who may utilize RPL § 223-b”), the court strayed from the mark. In this regard, it need be emphasized that the court raised the issue of standing on its own initiative, petitioners having eschewed any such argument in their submission opposing appellants’ discovery motion or by way of a motion to strike appellants’ retaliatory eviction defense. While we appreciate the court’s stated objective to “avoid further protraction” of this litigious matter, we must also acknowledge that the court’s unsolicited treatment of the unraised issue of standing effectively deprived appellants of an opportunity to be heard on that issue. Beyond the resultant surprise and prejudice to appellants, the court’s resolution of the standing issue was substantively flawed. True, in an earlier phase of this litigation, appellants, members of the building’s tenants’ organization, were denied protection under the Martin Act (General Business Law § 352-eeee; see MH Residential 1, LLC v Barrett, 78 AD3d 99 [2010]), with Justice Saxe, writing *27for a unanimous First Department panel, stating the applicable legal principle to be as follows: “Where an unregulated tenancy has expired, absent some special circumstance, the tenant retains only the minimal protections applicable to the common-law ‘tenant at sufferance’ ” (at 104). However, no matter how limited the rights of a tenant at sufferance may be (see 2 Robert F. Dolan, Rasch’s Landlord and Tenant — Summary Proceedings §§ 30:37, 30:39 [4th ed]), we do not construe the Appellate Division holding in this case’s earlier incarnation so broadly as to preclude appellants from invoking the retaliatory eviction statute, which by its terms prohibits a landlord from “refusing] to continue a tenancy of the tenant or, upon expiration of the tenant’s lease, to renew the lease or offer a new lease” (Real Property Law § 223-b [2]) in retaliation for certain species of tenant conduct, including a “tenant’s participation in the activities of a tenant’s organization” (§ 223-b [1] [c]). Indeed, adoption of the expansive construction urged by petitioners would effectively gut the Appellate Division’s clear directive that the matter be remanded for determination of appellants’ “remaining claims and defenses” (MH Residential 1, LLC v Barrett, 78 AD3d at 105), a remand order which necessarily includes appellants’ pleaded defense of retaliatory eviction.