U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert of the Eastern District of New York on Wednesday dismissed a challenge advanced by a group of small New York landlords to the state’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium law, finding that the defendant in the case, state Attorney General Letitia James, is not a proper party to the action.

U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert.

Seybert issued her ruling just two days after the case was reassigned to her court as a result of the death of her colleague, U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein, in a Florida hit-and-run crash April 9.