thority to receive it. In other cases where the payments had been made to the landlord the clerk would have no notice of such payment and would be unable to determine whether or not the stay was effected.

"The present amendment will cure these defects by requiring the deposit of the amount with the clerk, who, thereupon, turns it over to the landlord."

CHAPTER 135, LAWS OF 1920 33

Section 1. Article one of title one of chapter fourteen of the code of civil procedure is hereby amended by adding at the end a new section, to be section fifteen hundred and thirty-one-a, to read as follows:

§ 1531-a. When an action under this article is brought against a person or persons in possession under the terms of a lease, express or implied, upon the ground that such person holds over after the expiration of the term of such lease or upon the ground that such person holds over after a default by him in the payment of the rent reserved in such lease or any installment thereof, the answer may set up as a defense or counterclaim any state of facts which pursuant to the provisions of title two of chapter seventeen may be pleaded as a defense or counterclaim to a proceeding instituted under such title. The court may render affirmative judgment on such a counterclaim. An answer pleading such defense may be oral or in writing. If oral, the defendant must, before the time for answering expires, appear before the clerk of the court and state the facts constituting such defense and the latter must endorse the same briefly on the complaint.

COMMITTEE'S EXPLANATION

"The purpose of this bill is to give the tenant a defense in case the landlord goes into the Supreme Court and tries to eject the tenant from the premises by an action of ejectment. If this pro

33 This law was repealed by Chap. 947 of the Laws of 1920, which will be found printed in Appendix B among the temporary laws.

cedure were adopted by the landlord on the ground that the tenant had failed to pay his rent, the tenant, not being able to allege payment, might have judgment taken against him in twenty days.

"To forestall such action on the part of the landlord this bill provides that the tenant may set up the same defense in this action that he does in the Municipal Court action, namely, that the rent is unreasonable and unjust and that the agreement is oppressive.

"It allows the tenant to make an oral answer before the Clerk. This was done because in many cases the tenant would be unable to prepare his answer, and the expense of retaining an attorney would be a hardship.

"It is believed that by adding this section to the code no recourse to this form of action will be adopted."

CHAPTER 138, LAWS of 1920 34

Section 1. Section two hundred and thirty of chapter fifty-two of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine, entitled "An act relating to real property, constituting chapter fifty of the consolidated laws," is hereby repealed.

COMMITTEE'S EXPLANATION

"The present law provides that a person entitled to possession of premises may recover from the tenant in possession who holds over a penalty at the rate of double the rent for the time the tenant so detains the same together with all damages incurred by the person kept out of possession.

"This is an old statute adopted originally in England, and first enacted in this State in 1774. It has become absolete, and there is no reason for its existence, but in view of the passage of the present emergency legislation it was feared that it might be revived and be used to harass hold-over tenants, and made an instrument of injustice by unfair landlords."

34 In effect April 1, 1920.

CHAPTER 209, LAWS OF 1920.35

Section 1. Section one of chapter three hundred and three of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-two, re-entitled by chapter three hundred and fifty-seven of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, "An act in relation to summary proceedings to remove monthly tenants in the cities of New York and Brooklyn for holding over," and last amended by chapter six hundred and forty-nine of the laws of nineteen hundred and nineteen, is hereby amended to read as follows:

§ 1. No monthly tenant, or tenant from month to month, shall hereafter be removed from any lands or [tenements] buildings in the city of New York on the grounds of holding over his term unless at least [twenty] thirty days before the expiration of the term the landlord or his agent serve upon the tenant in the same manner in which a precept in summary proceedings is now allowed to be served by law, a notice in writing to the effect that the landlord elects to terminate the tenancy, and that unless the tenant removes from said premises on the day on which his term expires the landlord will commence summary proceedings under the statute to remove such tenant therefrom.

COMMITTEE'S EXPLANATION

"This bill does away with the present confusion due to the fact that the courts have held that monthly tenants must have twenty days' notice to quit, and tenants from month to month were entitled to thirty days. Nobody was able to tell the real difference between a monthly tenant and a tenant from month to month. This bill requires that thirty days' notice must be given in any case."

35 Effective April 1, 1920.

CHAPTER 210, LAWS OF 1920 36

Section 1. Subdivision three of section six of chapter two hundred and seventy-nine of the laws of nineteen hundred and fifteen, entitled "An act in relation to the municipal court of the city of New York and repealing certain statutes affecting such court, its justices and officers," as amended by chapter six hundred and fifty of the laws of nineteen hundred and nineteen, is hereby amended to read as follows:

3. To issue or vacate a requisition to replevy, a warrant of attachment, a warrant to seize a chattel and an order of arrest; to grant or vacate a stay of execution or of other proceedings, including a warrant in summary proceedings to recover possession of real property, provided that in summary proceedings no stay shall be granted for more than five days except that in addition to the foregoing, upon the [issuance of any warrant] rendering of a final order in summary proceedings, [if the proceeding be for the eviction of a tenant from a room or apartment in a tenement house occupied by three or more families,] a stay of the execution of the warrant may be granted for not more than [twenty] thirty days, if the tenant shall make a deposit in court of the amount of the rent for the period of the stay at the rate fixed by the landlord for the month immediately prior to the rendering of the final order [issuance of the warrant], which deposit shall be paid to the landlord or his agent by the clerk of the court; to render judgment in an action, or to make a final order in a summary proceeding, upon confession or upon the consent of both parties.

COMMITTEE'S EXPLANATION

"This extends the period of the stay which the court may grant from twenty to thirty days, and makes it apply to all cases of eviction, whether they be lofts or dwelling houses.

"It also corrects an error of verbiage in the present law by providing that the stay is to be granted upon the rendering of final

36 In effect April 1, 1920.

order in summary proceedings, rather than upon the issuance of a warrant, for, as a matter of fact, when the stay is granted no warrant issues."

CHAPTER 943, LAWS OF 1920.37

Section 1. Section twenty-two hundred and sixty-two of the code of civil procedure is hereby amended to read as follows:

§ 2262. Warrants; how stayed on appeal. Where an appeal is taken from a final order, awarding delivery of possession to the petitioner, which establishes that a lessee or tenant holds over, after a default in payment of rent, or after the expiration of his term, or from an order or judgment affirming such final order, the issuing and execution of the warrant may be stayed by the order of the county judge, and in the city and county of New York by a justice of the supreme court, or in any case by the appellate court or a justice thereof, upon the appellant's giving the security required to perfect the appeal, and to stay the execution of the order appealed from and also an undertaking to the petitioner in a sum and with sureties approved by a county judge or in the city and county of New York by a justice of the supreme court or in any case by the appellate court or a justice thereof to the effect that if, upon the appeal, a final determination is rendered against the applicant he will pay, if he holds over after a default in payment of rent, all rents accruing or to accrue upon the premises, or if there is no lease thereof, the value of the use and occupation of the premises subsequent to the institution of the special proceedings; or, if he holds over after the expiration of his term, that he will pay all costs and damages which the petitioner may suffer by reason of the stay herein provided for. The court or justice above referred to may grant such order with or without notice upon the filing of an undertaking approved by such court or justice in an amount equal to not less than three months' rent of the premises at the rate to which the appellant was liable as rent for the

37 Effective Sept. 27, 1920. This law is repealed, the repeal being effective Oct. 1, 1921. On that date the Civil Practice Act is operative. This section then becomes § 1443 of that Act. See that section in Appendix C.