Paul, Weiss Secures $205,000 Settlement for Pro Bono Clients, Ending Longstanding Kimso Apartments Litigation

Paul, Weiss successfully reached a $205,000 settlement resolving Kimso Apartments v. Rivera, a five-year-long litigation on behalf of pro bono clients Make the Road New York and two tenant organizers. The dispute began when the owners of Park Hill, a Section 8 housing complex on Staten Island, sued Make the Road, New York’s largest progressive grassroots immigrant-led organization, and its organizers under various tort theories, seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages. In reality, the lawsuit and each of Park Hill’s frivolous claims were a brazen and unlawful attempt to suppress the tenant organizing campaign that Make the Road had initiated at Park Hill. Through Make the Road’s efforts, tenants were demanding that management improve the abysmal conditions at Park Hill. They took representatives from New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Department of Buildings on tours of Park Hill’s properties, and alerted the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development—Park Hill’s primary regulator and the source of significant publicly subsidized funding—to Park Hill’s attempt to suppress tenant organizing and failure to maintain its properties.

We moved to dismiss Park Hill’s claims and asserted counterclaims, including one claim under New York State’s anti-SLAPP statute, which was enacted to protect against lawsuits that threaten citizen activists’ right to participate in the public process without fear of being targeted by retaliatory lawsuits. We also brought counterclaims under the state’s Real Property Law, the Housing Code and various contracts. After years of litigation that required twelve motions, five appeals and a trial on attorneys’ fees, our clients successfully defeated all of Park Hill’s claims, were granted summary judgment on their anti-SLAPP claim, were awarded attorneys’ fees, and secured a trial date this summer to determine whether Park Hill would be liable for punitive damages.

Ultimately, the parties entered into two settlement agreements to resolve their dispute. Park Hill agreed to pay the defendants $205,000, the majority of which will go to Make the Road, which will use it to further its mission of building the power of immigrant and working class communities to achieve dignity and justice.

The Paul, Weiss team included pro bono attorney Jeremy Benjamin and former litigation associates Benjamin Bergmann and Makiko Hiromi. Litigation partner Gregory Laufer supervised the matter.