104 N.Y.S. 165 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1907
The tenant had been in possession under a monthly tenancy- for about 12 years. On the landlord’s agent raising his rent from $16 to $17 a month, the tenant asked the agent for a 3 years’lease. He made and delivered to him such a lease in writing; not in the landlord’s name, however, but in his own name. If, nevertheless, we deem it the landlord’s lease .(for it was not' under seal), it was void because . the agent had no written authority toi-make it. Section 207 of the Beal Property Law requires written authority to an agent to make a lease for his landlord for. more than one year in order that the lease may be valid. The landlord never - ratified tjie act of the agent in making the lease.' Beceiving the rent was not a ratification. There "can. be no ratification without knowledge of the facts. The evidence shows without.dispute that the' agent was restricted by the landlord to the making of monthly .leases only, and the landlord never knew that he made the lease in question. If a land
•The final order should be reversed.
Hirschberg, P. J., Hooker, Rich and Miller, JJ., concurred:
Final order of the Municipal. Court reversed and new trial ordered, costs to abide the event.