Opinion
March 4, 1991
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Spodek, J.).
Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.
The plaintiff leased a commercial building from the defendant Ferguson Realty Corporation in 1988 and commenced this action less than a year later to declare the lease void. The sole issue raised on appeal concerns the dismissal of the plaintiff's second cause of action, which alleged that the lease was void due to the absence of a certificate of occupancy for the premises (see, Administrative Code of City of New York § 26-222).
A commercial lease is not void for illegality merely because the premises is not covered by a certificate of occupancy. The lease will be considered a valid contract if the bar to legal use of the premises is readily correctible and the language used in the lease indicates that the parties intended that the defect be corrected and the premises legally occupied (see, 56-70 58th St. Holding Corp. v Fedders-Quigan Corp., 5 N.Y.2d 557; Elkar Realty Corp. v Kamada, 6 A.D.2d 155; cf., Two Catherine St. Mgt. Co. v Yam Keung Yeung, 153 A.D.2d 678; Silver v Moe's Pizza, 121 A.D.2d 376). Here, the lease specifically provided that the plaintiff would procure a certificate of occupancy at its own expense in the event one was required by any governmental authority. As the plaintiff failed to offer facts which would establish that this defect could not be readily corrected, the defendants were entitled to dismissal of the second cause of action. Kunzeman, J.P., Kooper, Harwood and O'Brien, JJ., concur.