Matter of Blair v New York State Div. of Hous. & Community Renewal
2012 NY Slip Op 05254 [96 AD3d 687]
June 28, 2012
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, August 1, 2012


In the Matter of Dwight Blair, Respondent,
v
New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, Respondent, and Concourse Village, Inc., Appellant.

—[*1] Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Nahins & Goidel, P.C., New York (Paul N. Gruber of counsel), for appellant.

Sperber Denenberg & Kahan, P.C., New York (Jacqueline Handel-Harbour of counsel), for Dwight Blair, respondent.

Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, New York (Simon Heller of counsel), for amicus curiae.

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (John A. Barone, J.), entered November 21, 2011, which ordered a hearing to determine the amount of attorney's fees to which petitioner was entitled in connection with a CPLR article 78 proceeding and the underlying administrative proceedings commenced to establish his successor interest in a Mitchell-Lama apartment, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion for attorney's fees denied.

Real Property Law § 234 provides for a reciprocal right to attorney's fees where a residential lease authorizes such fees in favor of the landlord "in any action or summary proceeding." Because this provision does not apply to either [*2]administrative proceedings or proceedings brought pursuant to CPLR article 78 (see Matter of Chessin v New York City Conciliation & Appeals Bd., 100 AD2d 297, 306 [1984]), petitioner is not entitled to attorney's fees. Concur—Saxe, J.P., Friedman, Renwick, DeGrasse and Richter, JJ.