Judge Scott Fairgrieve
Landlord M.C.E. Corp. moved to amend a paragraph of the petition in this non-payment proceeding, to read “four (4) family multiple dwelling” instead of the premises being described as commercial, under CPLR 3025. The court granted M.C.E. leave to amend the paragraph, noting petitions in summary proceedings are analogous to pleadings in any other civil action, thus were held to be equally amendable. The court stated in Siedlecki v. Doscher that the Appellate Division, Second Department, rejected the “strict compliance” approach to jurisdiction in summary proceedings, stating summary proceedings were to be treated like other civil actions. Further, the court noted that the court in Jackson v. New York City Housing Authority held that a petition in a summary proceeding is no different than a pleading in any other type of civil case. It concluded that a petition that may fail to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action or contained other pleading infirmities was capable of correction by amendment. The court ruled that such a petition did not render the proceeding jurisdictionally defective. Therefore, the court granted landlord’s motion to amend the paragraph.
