Edition: U.S. / Global

Appeals Court Gives City Clearance to Evict Squatters in East Village

Published: August 9, 1996

A state appeals court gave New York City the right yesterday to evict defiant squatters from four city-owned buildings on East 13th Street in Manhattan, setting the stage for a resolution of a long-simmering housing battle in the East Village.

City officials said last night that the ruling, by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, meant they could immediately proceed with the eviction, although they refused to say when, or even if, they would act.

Shortly after midnight today, several police vehicles parked in front of the buildings, between Avenue A and Avenue B. Numerous police officers milled about in riot gear.

''They really have no legal right to be there,'' an assistant corporation counsel, Lorna B. Goodman, said of the squatters. ''We want to rehab the properties and turn them into low-income housing.''

Squatters and local residents seemed more baffled than anything by the police presence.

''I just heard rumors,'' said John Potak, who lives at 535 East 13th Street, a squatters' building that is not involved in the current lawsuit. ''The government is trying to push out people who have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, destroying the very housing that was recreated out of rubble and decaying infrastructure.''

Another squatter, Pablo Semiglia, said: ''There must be some misunderstanding. I don't believe the city would come into these buildings with families and children with no previous notice and say, 'You have to get out of the building now because we are going to renovate it.' ''

The squatters' continuing presence in the building has proven an embarrassment for the administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, which sent in police officers in riot gear a year ago in an attempt to remove the squatters and blocked off the street in the ensuing standoff.

In its 4-to-1 decision that the squatters could be removed, the appeals court panel found that a lower-court judge had erred last October in granting an injunction that prevented the city from carrying out the evictions. The squatters had claimed a right to the buildings based on the doctrine of ''adverse possession,'' which holds that a person who has had continuous use of someone else's property can keep it if the owner has made no formal objection.

The appeals panel, however, ruled yesterday that the squatters did not meet the requirements of ''adverse possession,'' which includes continuous occupancy for 10 years.

''Our review of the record reveals that the petitioners are not likely to prove ten years of actual, continuous, open and notorious possession of the subject buildings between 1984 and 1994, the period here in question,'' the decision stated.

A lawyer for the squatters, Jackie Bukowski, said she was appalled by the court's decision. ''It is an outrage that they want to throw people out,'' she said.

''These people literally kept the buildings standing,'' she added. ''The city relied on their efforts to keep the drug dealers out and the roofs repaired. Now, they want to throw them out so they can put in more deserving people. It is an outrage.''

At the buildings early this morning, many of the squatters said they had not known of the ruling, but predicted that if the city did move in, it would do so early in the morning, around 5 A.M., when the police have traditionally taken action in the past.

Ms. Goodman said the squatters could appeal the lifting of the preliminary injunction only if they were granted permission by the panel that had overturned it, which was unlikely. Ms. Bukowski said the squatters would seek an appeal.

A spokesman for Mayor Giuliani, Jack Deacy, said the Mayor was pleased by the ruling.

''Today's court decision represents a substantial victory for the East Village community and for the city,'' he said. ''It opens the door for the city to finally move ahead with a low-income housing project.''

The granting of the injunction by Justice Elliot Wilk of State Supreme Court initially surprised many.

Mayor Giuliani said at the time that he was certain the decision would be overturned on appeal. ''The judge is obviously making up the law rather than applying the law,'' he said then.

The squatters were mostly left alone by city housing officials, some for more than a decade, until the summer of 1994. Since then, the city has tried by various means to regain control of four adjacent buildings -- 537, 539, 541 and 545 East 13th Street -- citing plans to renovate the buildings for low-income families.

Some of the squatters have constructed comfortable living spaces, rebuilding burnt-out roofs and replacing electrical and plumbing systems that had been stripped by scavengers. They maintain that if it were not for their improvements, the city would not have buildings worth renovating.

In the fall of 1994, when the squatters learned of the city's plans for the buildings, they asked the courts to block the evictions.

After an unsuccessful attempt at forging a compromise, Justice Wilk issued the permanent restraining order last November to prevent the removal of the squatters.

During that fight, in May 1995, the city, arguing in appellate court that two of the buildings were in danger of collapse, was given an opening to seize 541 and 545 East 13th Street, which are adjacent to each other.

When the maneuver prompted a violent reaction by some squatters and their supporters, who barricaded themselves inside, the city dispatched hundreds of riot police. Some squatters were removed, only to taunt the police by sneaking back into the building six weeks later.