A New Use for an Old Tool

At least since Abraham's and Lot's shepherds parted ways over a land-grazing disagreement, Western Civilization's literature has been full of accounts of people having monetary and property disputes. The plethora of litigators across the United States has produced some of the most creative and inventive excuses for not having to pay debts. Avoidance of debt more than likely became an even greater epidemic after the abolition of the debtors' prisons, which occurred at the federal level in 1833. Indeed, nothing has spawned disputes over money like fights over real estate. Commercial leasing litigation has become an art form ' and in states like New York, attorneys have, as a result of technicalities such as failing to serve the tenant properly, kept non-paying tenants in possession for years. (Croghan, Lore: “Candyman Reprieve,” New York Daily News, Aug. 18, 2004.) Against that background, there is special significance to the fact that two New York State courts have refurbished an old weapon for property owners to use in their battles against commercial tenants unjustly failing to pay rent.