ongregation Fails To Evict Tenant
Congregation Fails to Evict Tenant
By JOSEPH P. FRIED
ongregation Fails
To Evict Tenant
An eviction battle in New York City is hardly unusual, but the tenant-versus- rabbi twist in this one got it public attention.
In 2000, a Hasidic congregation, Bnai Abraham Mordechai, bought a five-story town house on East 38th Street in Manhattan, between Madison and Park Avenues, and moved to evict four tenants. Three left, but the fourth, Vicki Ross, was determined to remain in her rent-stabilized, $1,090-a-month, one-bedroom apartment, her home for 25 years.
The congregation, which meets for services in a building on Fifth Avenue, said it wanted her space for a nonresidential use like a library for its members. The congregation's lawyer, James E. Schwartz, argued that it could refuse to renew her lease given such an educational use.
Ms. Ross's lawyer, Bruce H. Wiener, said the congregation's rabbi, Joshua Metzger, wanted her apartment because he wanted to expand the space his family had moved into below her. Mr. Wiener said that was not a valid reason to evict her, and that other restrictions in the rent stabilization law also barred the congregation from evicting her.
Last month, a Civil Court judge, Peter M. Wendt, ruled in favor of Ms. Ross. Mr. Schwartz said the congregation would not appeal.
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