Josh Price Thwarts Restraining Order Against Smoking NYC Tenant During COVID-19 Pandemic

Joshua Price • May 15, 2020

The Price Law Firm struck a blow today for tenants’ rights and individual liberty by defeating a landlord’s attempt to obtain a permanent injunction that would have prevented a forty year rent stabilized tenant (and smoker) from continuing to smoke in her apartment. The decision drew the attention of The New York Post article entitled, ‘Chain-smoking’ NYC tenant can keep puffing in apartment: judge :

The owners of the Yorkville apartment building filed suit last month, asking a judge to intervene in a dispute between tenants Deborah Schevill — who allegedly smokes around the clock in her fourth-floor apartment — and upstairs neighbor Marianne Spinelli, who claims she was “violently ill” from Schevill’s fumes.

Enter The Price Law Firm. Joshua Price, who represents Schevill, said:

“Before the tenant was represented, the landlord sought a temporary restraining order to enjoin her from smoking. The judge directed the parties to appear a week later to argue about whether the injunction should be permanent. I was hired. I did papers. We appeared. We argued. We won. No more injunction.”

…Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arlene Bluth denied building owner J & P Realty LLC’s request to bar Schevill from smoking in her own apartment because the evidence doesn’t prove “that the smoke complained about is coming exclusively from Schevill or that it is so pervasive that it constitutes a nuisance.”

…Bluth also said that legally there is nothing barring Schevill from smoking in her unit as her lease doesn’t have a provision about not smoking.

Schevill’s lawyer, Joshua Price, told The Post, “We of course are very gratified that the judge entirely ruled in our favor in a time when there is a global pandemic and access to the courts is closed off to just about everyone.

“It is disappointing that the court system allowed this frivolous case to proceed in the first place.”

Read the Judge’s Full Decision

If you are a New York landlord or tenant who has questions about a looming landlord-tenant or rent dispute, we are glad to answer them honestly and accurately. Call (212) 675-1125 for a free consultation.

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Joshua Clinton Price

Founder of The Price Law Firm LLC

Josh Price is a lawyer who is sought by clients with complicated cases because of his extensive knowledge of the law and his ability to help the law evolve.

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