Opinion
February 11, 1999
Appeal from the Supreme Court, First Department (Parness, J. P., and Davis, J.; Freedman, J., concurring).
The appropriate test for the adequacy of a notice of nonrenewal "is one of reasonableness in view of all attendant circumstances" (Hughes v. Lenox Hill Hosp., 226 A.D.2d 4, 17, lv dismissed 90 N.Y.2d 829). Here, a separate rider, incorporated by reference into the notices of nonrenewal, set forth the statutory grounds for nonrenewal by tracking the statutory language of Rent Stabilization Code (9 N.Y.CRR) § 2524.4 (b). When taken in conjunction with the factual allegations that were contained in most of the challenged notices, including the allegation that the particular tenant to whom the notice was directed had taken possession of the subject premises subsequent to July 1, 1978 (see, Rent Stabilization Code [9 N.Y.CRR] § 2524.4 [b]), the rider provided the necessary additional information to enable the tenant respondent to frame a defense and the notice, as a whole, was therefore adequate to meet the tests of reasonableness and due process. However, those nonrenewal notices that did not contain factual allegations stating that the tenants concerned took possession after July 1, 1978 and that did not, either by factual allegation or by reference to the aforementioned rider, afford the affected tenants notice sufficient to enable them effectively to defend their tenancies, were defective and Civil Court's dismissal of the, petitions predicated upon such defective notices of non-renewal should have been upheld, and we modify accordingly.
Concur — Rosenberger, J. P., Lerner, Rubin and Mazzarelli, JJ.