In the decision dated August 16, 2007, the Supreme Court of the State of New York (the state's lowest court of "general jurisdiction") in Manhattan DENIED landlord Larry Gluck's petition.

Gluck had asked the court to

• require the state's Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR) to act on his pending applications for "unqiue or peculiar" increases for 11 rent stabilized buildings (the Manhattan case just concerned 4),

  and

• require DHCR to change its policy so that it would favor the landlords.

But the court said NO WAY in a 5-page decision. The court pointed out that the landlord has not "exhausted all administrative remedies" -- which means the landlord has not yet gone through the full process before DHCR, an administrative agency. (This is generally a requirement before a court is willing to consider a case.)

In addition, the court noted that DHCR -- and not the court -- has the primary jurisdiction over the question of "unique or peculiar" . So the court is giving DHCR the opportunity to set and then follow its own procedures in order to determine this "discretionary, judgmental act."

Click on "read more" below for additional discussion of the decision and its immediate consequences.

DHCR's own decision cannot come down before its new regulations are finalized, possibly sometime in October. The proposed regulations that prevent "unique or peculiar" increases just because a building is leaving Mitchell-Lama will be considered at a public hearing on

• SEPTEMBER 24th

• 10 AM- 4 PM

• 22 Reade Street in Manhattan.

Please come and support the tenants in the 20,000 units affected by "unique or peculiar" !

The lawyers who submitted briefs for the tenants associations were:

• Jacques Rose of Hartman, Ule, Rose & Ratner, representing Central Park Gardens, and

• Kevin McConnell of Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue & Joseph, representing Columbus Manor.

DHCR's attorneys wrote a good brief as well.

Also at stake: the applications for Town House West Apartments and Westwood House, both represented by attorney Edward Filmyr.

Let's hope that the remaining 6 buildings in the Bronx and 1 in Brooklyn share the same outcome.