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Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County, June 8, 2011
APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL
Bedford Stuyvesant Community Legal Services Corporation, Brooklyn (Victor Olds of counsel), for respondent. Law Office of Brian Stark, Bronx (Jeffrey M. Hulbert of counsel), for petitioner.
{**32 Misc 3d at 615} OPINION OF THE COURT
Phyllis K. Saxe, J.
The respondent tenant has moved to amend her answer in this summary nonpayment proceeding, seeking dismissal of the petition pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7) for failure to state a cause of action, or, in the alternative, granting summary judgment (CPLR 3212), and for an order dismissing rent claims for the period prior to January 2011. The landlord opposes the application.
It appears that the respondent tenant Angela Whinfield (hereinafter tenant) moved into the [*2]subject premises pursuant to a one-year rent-stabilized lease at the beginning of 2006 at a rent of $800 per month. On or about the beginning of February 2011 a nonpayment proceeding was instituted against the tenant seeking rent from February 2009 through January 2011. The tenant contests the legal ownership of the premises by the present petitioner, Bergen Brick LLC (hereinafter Brick), claiming that this entity does not have standing to bring this proceeding.
The facts appear to be as follows: One Merle Williams and her mother Mabel Gabbidon were joint owners of the subject premises at 1261 Bergen Street in Brooklyn in 2005. On October 26, 2005, Ms. Gabbidon and Ms. Williams agreed that the premises would be transferred to Ms. Gabbidon, the mother, as the sole owner, and a deed to that effect was executed. Ms. Gabbidon died intestate in 2008. It appears that Ms. Williams, the sole distributee of her mother's estate, may never have sought letters of administration in the Surrogate's Court. Ms. Williams thereafter transferred ownership of the subject premises to Bergen Brick LLC on December 29, 2010 by deed in which she asserted that she, as transferor, was the "sole heir and distributee" of Mabel Gabbidon.
It is the tenant's position that the petitioner, Brick, lacks standing to seek possession of the subject premises as a landlord{**32 Misc 3d at 616} or owner pursuant to RPAPL 721 because the transfer of title from Ms. Williams to Brick was invalid since Ms. Williams never received letters of administration from the Surrogate's Court in Kings County which could have authorized such a transfer. It is further alleged by the tenant that the petitioner does not fall within any of the other categories set forth in RPAPL 721 that would entitle it to bring this summary proceeding.
The tenant's position is incorrect as a matter of law for the reasons that follow. Accordingly, the application to amend the answer is denied as is the request seeking dismissal (CPLR 3211 [a] [7]) and summary judgment (CPLR 3212).
Under RPAPL 721 the following persons can maintain a summary proceeding: a landlord, a lessee entitled to possession, a landlord's receiver, a person entitled to possession of property being held by a squatter, or a purchaser upon execution or at a foreclosure sale (see generally Scherer, Residential Landlord-Tenant Law in New York

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