21 A.D.2d 662 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1964
Order, entered on December 27, 1963, denying defendants’ motions to dismiss the complaint under the Civil Practice Law and Rules (3211, snbd. [a], pars. 1, 7) unanimously reversed, on the law, and motions granted, without costs to any party. In this action to recover compensatory damages for the exclusion of plaintiffs from acquiring an interest in a co-operative apartment because of alleged religious discrimination, plaintiffs perforce rely on the statute to establish the wrong (Administrative Code of City of New York, §§ Dl—1,0 — Dl-4.0, formerly §§ X41-1.0 — X41-4.0). The statute provides an administrative remedy, and judicial remedies only on the initiative of the named administrative agency. Although, in this field of governmental regulation, there has been careful attention to the provision or exclusion of private or individual remedies, no such provision was made in the instant legislation. (See, e.g., Executive Law, § 300.) This is a cogent indication that the intention was to exclude such remedy. Moreover, the nature of the regulation and the purpose for its creation was not to establish a remedy for a compensable damage based upon the difference in value of obtainable accommodations, but rather to prevent insidious segregation based upon race, color, religion, national origin and ancestry, regardless of the comparative value between obtainable housing and housing segregated on invalid grounds. Thus, there is no reference in the statute which lends itself to support such a remedy. On the other hand, the procedures for conciliation and confidentiality of proceedings in the first instance suggest that a quite different approach from that of damage actions is contemplated. These are added cogent indications that the legislation was intended to exclude the private or individual remedy in an action for damages. The evil or mischief to be corrected, in the ease of housing, at least in the case of high rent or co-operative housing, was not