New York Tenants were served with a notice of termination for using the apartment for the illegal trade of the sale, storage, packaging or manufacturing of a controlled substance.
The notice contained a seven-point list of facts surrounding the arrest of the tenants inside the premises where they were in possession of marijuana.The tenants claimed that the eviction proceeding must be dismissed because the notice failed to lay-out the underpinnings of the illegal conduct complained of, rendering the notice vague, conclusory and defective.
The City of New York Civil Court, Richmond County held that the annexation of the following materials to the petition and the notice of termination gave clear notice of the events out of which the landlord’s grievance arose and served to allege adequately the elements of its cause of action: search warrant, arrest reports of the tenants, the Police Laboratory Controlled Substance Analysis Report indicating that marijuana was seized at the premises and the Police Report indicating that a scale and packaging materials were seized during the search and subsequent arrests.
The court held that the tenant’s participation or acquiescence in the use of the apartment for illegal drug sales may be inferred from the indicia of drug measurement, packaging and scales recovered in the search of the premises.