Michele Barton and her fellow tenants wanted to exercise an option to convert their building into a cooperative, but the building's owner--70 St. Nicholas Avenue Housing Development Fund Corporation--refused to cooperate.
When litigation ensued, and the New York County Supreme Court denied the owner's request to throw the case out, St. Nicholas appealed.
While St. Nicholas was "authorized" to convert the structure into a cooperative, it wasn't legally required to do so. In the absence of any contractual arrangement or other basis to compel the conversion, the Appellate Division, First Department, agreed that the tenants' case couldn't continue.
Take stock of that?
To view a copy of the Appellate Division's decision, please use this link: Barton v. 270 St. Nicholas Ave. Hous. Dev. Fund Corp.