Stuy-Town Ruling Won’t Spur More Class-Action Suits

NEW YORK CITY-In reporting Thursday’s state Supreme Court ruling that former owner MetLife may be held liable for rent overcharges to thousands of tenants at the massive Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town multifamily complex, the New York Law Journal quoted attorney Mitchell Posilkin as saying the decision’s impact was “potentially devastating.” Posilkin is general counsel for the Rent Stabilization Association of New York, which was involved in the case as an amicus. He told the NYLJ, sister publication to GlobeSt.com, “There has been wholesale reliance” over the years by the real estate community on city and state housing authorities’ interpretations of the laws governing luxury deregulation of rent-stabilized apartments.

Whether that devastation will come to pass is unclear, although attorney Kevin Smith sees dwindling interest in filing similar class-action suits against owners of multifamily complexes. “It’s becoming clear that this may not be the cash cow that everybody thought,” Smith tells GlobeSt.com.