Court Grants Yellowstone Injunction Preventing Landlord from Terminating the Commercial Lease Over Disputed Water Charges

The Real Estate Litigation team at Morrison Cohen was once again successful in persuading the Supreme Court of the State of New York to grant a Yellowstone injunction to our client, a tenant, preventing the landlord from terminating the commercial lease over a dispute for responsibility of water charges.  
 
In ordering the injunction, the Court rejected the landlord’s attempts to terminate the lease by issuing a notice of termination after our client had filed and presented an injunction application, but before the temporary restraining order application was ruled upon.  The Court determined that the notice was ineffective and that our client had otherwise established all the prerequisites to obtaining injunctive relief.  
 
The tenant will now be entitled to litigate its contention that the landlord is improperly charging additional rent for cold commercial water use, something that the landlord had never done in the first 34 years of the commercial lease.  Further, such additional rent is not provided for in the lease, which tenant claims is barred by the lease rider.  The injunction bars any attempt by the landlord to terminate the lease while the issue of responsibility for water charges is litigated.
 
The case is Tuckahoe Realty, LLC v. 241 East 76 Tenants Corp., Index No. 656414/2019  in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.  
 
The Morrison Cohen team was led by partners Y. David Scharf and Alvin C.  Lin, along with associate Tsedey A. Bogale.