In its 2013 decision in Pomerance v. McGrath (Pomerance I),1 as noted by one of the authors in a prior article on the subject,2 the Appellate Division, the First Department handed down the first appellate decision delineating the rights of condominium unit owners to inspect the books and records of condominium management. Although the courts had long held that shareholders of cooperative corporations had the right, under Business Corporation Law (BCL) 624(b), to obtain the names and addresses of other shareholder-tenants in connection with an election, no such statutory right was provided to condominium owners under the Condominium Act.
Pomerance I addressed this apparent disparity in the law regarding the right of inspection given to shareholder-tenants versus condominium unit owners and held that condominium unit owners were entitled to be given the contact information of other unit owners “in written form and any other format in which the condominium or its managing agent maintains such information.” The First Department has more recently decided Pomerance II3 in which the court has further clarified the rights of condominium owners to inspect management books and records.
