You Got to Know When to Hold ‘Em - Buyouts on the Eve of the Altman Case
May 13, 2018
I was representing a tenant in a buyout case. My strongest
argument for getting the tenant a healthy buyout was based upon the ill-fated Altman case. If Altman remained the law of the land, my client would be able to
demand a lot of money from her landlord in exchange for her apartment. If,
however, the case went down in flames, I still had some arguments, but they
were not as nearly as potent. The attorney for the landlord faced the same dilemma
I did. The second Altman came down,
one of us would be a big winner and one a big loser. I don’t love those
positions, I don’t find them exciting. The law shouldn’t be a game, and, when
stakes are high, people’s futures hang in the balance.
The week that the ruling was due out, I convinced my client
to take a conservative number. Well, landlord’s counsel did not find the number
“conservative”, she thought it was high. Let’s just say the number was lower
than we wanted and higher than landlord wanted. In any event, it didn’t take
much convincing, because my client didn’t love rolling the dice either. She
packed everything, put her stuff in storage, and rented an Airbnb. She arrived
at my office with luggage as we went to the surrender ceremony to get her
check.
The very next morning, the Altman case, and my best arguments…a lot of people’s best arguments…went
away. I was so very glad that I had convinced my client to take the dollars on
the table. I kept walking around all day humming that old Kenny Rogers tune, the Gambler:
You got to know when to hold ‘em,
Know when to fold ‘em
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run,
You never count your money when yer
sitting at the table,
There’ll be time enough for
countin’ when the dealin’s done.
Every gambler knows that the secret to survivin',
Is knowin' what to throw away and knowin' what to keep,
'Cause every hand's a winner, and every hand's a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in yer sleep.
Respectfully submitted,
Labels: Kenny Rogers, Rent Stabilization, Residential Landlord and Tenant, Tenant Buyouts
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