Appeal by landlord from so much of an order of the Justice Court, Town of East Hampton, Suffolk County (L. Rana, J.), dated April 16, 2004, as granted a motion by tenant to dismiss landlord's holdover petition insofar as the petition was based on a claim that tenant breached a provision of a stipulation of settlement.

Order unanimously affirmed without costs.

The Justice Court properly dismissed landlord's holdover petition insofar as it alleged that landlord terminated the lease based upon a claim that tenant breached paragraph 11 of the stipulation dated September 18, 2003, which stipulation settled a Supreme Court action between the parties. The stipulation of settlement did not provide that landlord could terminate the lease based upon a default under paragraph 11, which paragraph obligated tenant to obtain certain insurance for a barn, and did not provide that this obligation would become a term and condition of the lease. Inasmuch as the law requires strict construction of language in written instruments that can work a f orfeiture of a leasehold (Lerner v Johnson, 167 AD2d 372, 375 [1990]), the absence of the above-stated language in the stipulation requires the dismissal of landlord's claim (see Chuang v Quezada, 2005 NY Slip Op 50166[U] [Civ Ct, Kings County]).
Decision Date: April 13, 2005