Don't take my Kerry Blue Terrier!

From the Chaptzem Blog: chaptzem.blogspot.com
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Submitted by Judith Bruno

A Brooklyn girl could lose her best friend - a spunky terrier who raised her spirits and helped pull her out of depression - because her landlord will not budge on its no-dogs-allowed policy.

"She's my best friend," 9-year-old Alison Shur said as she cuddled her adoring pooch. "Friends at school leave on vacations and on trips, but Lada's here forever with me now."

The family even got the city's permission to keep the dog - but the landlord went to court and got a judge to step in.

Alison's mom, Ilona, bought the friendly terrier when she and her daughter moved from Bay Ridge to Bensonhurst two years ago.

Alison hated the move. She missed her friends, stopped talking, hid her food, complained of stomach pains and fell behind in school. And the lonely child's therapist said a pet might help lift Alison's depression.

So even though her lease prohibited pets, Shur bought Ellada, a frisky Kerry blue terrier that Alison nicknamed Lada.

It was love at first sight.

"I like that she has a funny face. Her nose. Her eyes. Her little ears. She's very kind," Alison said. "Sometimes, she makes the wily face when she wants to get food."

But the building's owner, Contello Towers II Corp., was not at all enamored of the dog. The company, seeing Lada as a violation of the lease, has waged a two-year legal battle to evict the dog.

"If we allow one pet, it opens the floodgates," said Santo Golino, attorney for Contello Towers.

Animal advocates said dogs like Lada are sometimes considered grandfathered into leases if landlords fail to file a complaint within a matter of weeks. Lada, a quiet, nonshedding pup, went undetected for roughly four months.

But earlier this week, The Towers won the latest legal battle when Brooklyn Justice David Schmidt ruled that the dog was not medically necessary and therefore not allowed in the apartment.

The city Department of Housing Preservation and Development now will force the family to give up the pet - or get out.

Shur is determined to fight.

"It is inhuman," said the Georgian immigrant, who has offered to pay more in rent and buy extra insurance so her daughter could keep her pet.

Shur said she has not lost hope, in part because a city administrative hearing officer ruled in her favor in August 2003.

The hearing officer concluded that Shur was "foolish" to buy the prohibited animal, but also found that Alison had a disability and her reliance on Lada met the criteria of the Americans with Disabilities Act, so she could keep the dog.

But Contello Towers immediately appealed, leading to this week's ruling.

Shur said the building was full of dogs, but only newer tenants like herself were being targeted.

"I can't let them do this to my daughter," Shur vowed. "I won't."

During the expensive two-year fight, Shur has kept Alison unaware of efforts to take her dog, and begged neighbors not to expose the secret.

Yesterday, the landlord refused to back down.

"Everyone who brings in a dog, we pounce on them right away," Golino said. "Someone with a weak claim like this - 'I don't feel well, so I need a dog' - it lends itself to too much mischief, people feigning illnesses to keep a dog."

Follow Up

On Thursday, February 16, 2006, Maureen Lancaster provided the following update:

The Brooklyn judge has left the door open for tenants who claim that emotional disabilities require an exception to no-pets policies, while closing the door to thisparticular family.

Justice David I. Schmidt ruled in an Article 78 proceeding that a girl's terrier is not medically necessary under the law. Thus the managers of a Bensonhurst apartment building may evict the "anxious and depressed" 9-year-old and her mother for having the pet, he ruled.

Details of Juctice David I. Schmidt's ruling: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1100535357392

The New York Supreme Court agreed. The Court, recognizing that both the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") and the New York City Civil Rights Law, while requiring that landlords make reasonable accomodations in rules, practices, policies and services to enable persons with disabilities equal opportunity to use and enjoy a housing accomodation, the record did not prove that the dog was necessary for the tenant's daughter to use and enjoy the apartment.

Details at: http://tenant.net/Court/Hcourt/index.html?x=1476

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