The Son Also Inherits

Originally published in Habitat Magazine in April 2018.

When a shareholder dies, most proprietary leases contain a provision allowing an assignment of the shares and lease to a financially responsible member of the deceased's family. When the board in Koeppel v. 130 East End Avenue Tenants Corp. refused to permit a shareholder's son to acquire the shares, the son sued.

Thomas Koeppel's father bought an apartment at 130 East End Avenue in 1972. After he died in 2016, the apart­ment was in disrepair and required sub­stantial renovations. Although Thomas Koeppel had never lived in the apart­ment, his father had left it to him in his will. The proprietary lease provided that the board may not "unreasonably withhold" consent to an assignment of the shares that a shareholder made in his will, provided the assignment was to a "financially responsible member" of his immediate family.