Practice point: Where a lease allows a landlord to recover attorneys’ fees if a tenant defaults or is evicted, the claim for the fee must be asserted in the summary proceeding.
Practitioners should note that a separate, plenary action to recover attorneys’ fees is prohibited as the splitting of the cause of action.
Case: Landmark Properties v. Olivo, NY Slip Op 04202 (2d Dept. 2009)
The opinion is here.
Tomorrow’s issue: Motion practice.
There is another instructive case here.
