RENT STABILIZATION ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK CITY, INC., ET AL., APPELLANTS,
AND SMALL PROPERTY OWNERS OF NEW YORK, INTERVENOR-APPELLANT, v. RICHARD L.
HIGGINS, &C., RESPONDENT, AND ROBERT WELLS, ET AL., INTERVENORS- RESPONDENTS.
83 N.Y.2d 156, 630 N.E.2d 626, 608 N.Y.S.2d 930 (1993).
December 21, 1993
1 No. 259 (1993 NY Int. 273)
Decided December 21, 1993
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This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication
in the New York Reports.
Sherwin Belkin, for Appellants.
Ronald D. Hariri, for Intervenor-appellant.
Cullen S. McVoy, for Respondent.
Paris R. Baldacci, for Intervenors-respondents.
Community Housing Improvement Program, Inc.; Pacific Legal Foundation;
New York State Tenant and Neighborhood Coalition, Inc., et al.;
Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association, et al.; City of New York; and
The Real Estate Board of New York, Inc., amici curiae.
KAYE, CHIEF JUDGE:
Essentially two challenges are mounted by appellant-property owners to
regulations promulgated by respondent Division of Housing and
Community Renewal (DHCR) enlarging the class of "family members"
entitled to succeed to a rent-regulated apartment on the death or
departure of the tenant of record. As did the Appellate Division, we
conclude first that the regulations are within the agency's rulemaking
authority, and second that no unconstitutional "taking" was effected.
I.
We begin with the background of the challenged regulations. In
response to what it found to be a severe housing shortage following
World War II, the legislature enacted laws providing for rent control
and, later, rent stabilization.(n 1) Perceiving that continuing
need throughout the ensuing decades, the legislature has periodically
extended rent regulation to the present day, most recently providing
for decontrol only of apartments with monthly rents in excess of two
thousand dollars (see, Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1993, L 1993, ch
253 (extending rent control and rent stabilization until June 15,
1997)).
SNIPPETS:
RENT STABILIZATION ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK CITY, INC., ET AL., APPELLANTS,
Sherwin Belkin, for Appellants.
Ronald D. Hariri, for Intervenor-appellant.
Community Housing Improvement Program, Inc.; Pacific Legal Foundation; New York State Tenant
Essentially two challenges are mounted by appellant-property owners to regulations
In response to what it found to be a severe housing shortage following World War II, the
253 (extending rent control and rent stabilization until June 15,
The rent control statute accorded noneviction protection to a "tenant," meaning that the
That protection was later extended to family members living with a tenant who voluntarily
In 1987, however, DHCR amended the rent stabilization regulations to provide noneviction
Appellants sought a preliminary injunction and a declaration that the new regulations were
After Supreme Court granted respondents' cross-motion for a declaration that the regulations
The Appellate Division upheld the regulations as a valid exercise of DHCR's authority for the
We first address appellants' assertion that DHCR was without authority to adopt the
As an arm of the executive branch of government, an administrative agency may not, in the
The challenged regulations "fill in the interstices" of the legislative mandate by redefining
Appellants next urge that the challenged regulations are unconstitutional on their face
Governmental action that compels an owner to endure a permanent physical occupation of its
That a rent-regulated tenancy might itself be of indefinite duration--as has long been the
Chief Judge Kaye's Opinion of the Court cogently distinguishes respondents' regulations,
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