Nancy McCaskill bought the shares for a cooperative apartment in Mount Vernon, New York in April 1998. At the time she entered into possession a washing machine was installed. In 2014, the Board of Directors enacted the following House Rule 21: The Board of Directors having determined that the plumbing systems of the Buildings are… Read more
Tenant of a rent stabilized Manhattan apartment listed the unit on the Airbnb website at nightly rental rates starting at $200. Entered into more than one dozen separate rentals totaling 79 nights in 10 months, with up to 5 guests per rental. And collected as much as $366.00 per night, more than four times tenant’s daily… Read more
Documents included with offering plans (i.e. declarations, by-laws, rules and regulations, etc.) and other evidence are used to determine whether the board of a residential cooperative or condominium or the owner of an apartment is responsible to fix failures in a building system. Keep in mind, however, that a board or managing agent may become… Read more
Condominium declarations, by-laws and rules and regulations govern many details of residential apartment living and unit owners are obligated to comply with them even if they feel that they impinge upon their rights. This point is illustrated by a recent lawsuit involving the display of an American flag. A unit owner had installed a relatively… Read more
By: Marcie Ernst and Melanie Walker[1] The United States Supreme Court recently ruled in Husted, Ohio Secretary of State v. A. Phillip Randolph Institute[2] that Ohio’s process for removing voters on change-of-residence grounds did not violate the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), also known as the “Motor Voter Act.”[3] A. Phillip Randolph Institute, a labor… Read more
In Scheinmann v. Dykstra, 2017 WL 1422972 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 21, 2017), a New York federal court considered the issues of whether a series of emails was sufficient to establish an enforceable settlement agreement between the parties, and whether a “standard” release was part of the deal. In this lawsuit against a former Mets baseball player,… Read more
Litigants often try to resolve their federal and state law claims in a single action. In order for a federal court to hear state law claims, it must invoke supplemental jurisdiction, codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1367. As long as the court has subject matter jurisdiction and the state law claim arises out of the… Read more
By Marcia M. Ernst[1] The United States Supreme Court recently ruled in Water Splash, Inc. v. Menon[2] that Article 10(a) of the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters[3] (“Hague Service Convention”) does not prohibit service of process by mail. The Hague Service Convention is an international… Read more
There are 13 federal appellate courts called the U.S. Courts of Appeal that sit below the U.S. Supreme Court. These courts hear appeals from 94 federal trial courts, which are called the U.S. District Courts. According to statistics from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts published in its Judicial Business 2016 report for… Read more
Introducing the Smith, Gambrell & Russell’s Litigation Blog The litigation attorneys of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP are proud to announce the launch of the firm’s Litigation Blog, which covers trending news and hot topics in the area of commercial litigation. The firm’s litigators have handled commercial disputes and trials for decades, and we are excited… Read more