"St. Marks Affordable HDFC Phase I v. Doe"
 

Case Type

Holdover-Licensee

Housing Type

HDFC

Court

Civil Court of the City of New York

County

Kings County (Brooklyn)

L&T / Index / Case / Docket / Clerk's Number

LT-302558-24/KI

Petitioner

St. Marks Affordable HDFC Phase I

Respondent

John Doe; Jane Doe

Judge

Weisberg, Michael L.

Decision/Order Date

2025-04-23

Posture

Pre-answer Motion by Tenant

Disposition

Case Dismissed/discontinued

Winner

Tenant Substantially Won

Synopsis

In this holdover licensee proceeding, the landlord sued unnamed occupants as John Doe and Jane Doe without first making diligent efforts to identify the actual tenant. In response to the tenant's motion to dismiss, the landlord claimed it had reviewed the file and performed a digital search, but conceded it had not knocked on the apartment door or gathered a physical description. The court held that these minimal efforts failed to meet CPLR 1024's requirements, which demand a good faith attempt to ascertain a party's identity before using a pseudonym. The petition's lack of descriptive identifiers further deprived the respondent of notice. The court granted the motion and dismissed the case. Practice Note: A landlord must demonstrate genuine efforts to identify unknown occupants and provide descriptive allegations when resorting to CPLR 1024; mere file review is insufficient.

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