6 N.Y.S. 617 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1889
This action was brought by the plaintiff to recover of the defendant the rent of certain premises situated in Cohoes, from May 1, 1886, to the 1st of November of the same year, at the rate of $1,200 a year, payable semi-annually. The defendant became the tenant of the plaintiff of said premises May 1, 1870, at the annual rent of $700, payable semi-annually, and occupied the premises continuously to May 1, 1875, at such rent. In' the month of March, 1875, the plaintiff informed the common council of the defendant that he should exact $1,200 as the annual rent of said premises, commencing on the 1st day of May, 1875, payable semi-annually. On the 9th day of April, 1875, the common council of the defendant adopted the following resolution: “Resolved, that the mayor be, and hereby is, authorized to rent for the use of the city the premises in Egbert’s Hall, now occupied as common council chamber and offices for justices and city officials, for a period of three years from May 1st, prox., at an annual rent of twelve hundred dollars ($1,200.) ” No lease or other written agreement was executed by either party, but the defendant continued in the occupation of the premises, paying the rent therefor at the yearly sum of $1,200, semi-annually, on the first days of November and May of each year, until August 1, 1885, when the defendant vacated the premises, and tendered the key to John Wakeman, who was the plaintiff’s agent to receive and collect rents of the premises in question. Wakeman refused to receive the key. The plaintiff was soon thereafter informed that the defendant had abandoned the premises. The dei'endant paid the rent to May 1, 1886, the close of the year in which the defendant vacated the premises. The plaintiff sought to -recover at the trial $600 rent of the premises from May 1, 1886, to November 1st of the same year, with interest thereon from the time the same was claimed to have become payable. The plaintiff based his right of recovery upon the alleged ground that the defendant had omitted to serve upon him a proper notice of its intention to terminate the tenancy on the 1st day of May, 1886. No lease or other written agreement having been executed by either of the parties in