In August of 2020, the federal district court in Manhattan accepted the VOLS Microenterprise Project’s “friend of the court” brief (also known as an amicus brief), in support of two important laws for small business owners who are struggling to survive the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 crisis: A law protecting COVID-affected businesses from commercial landlord harassment and a law suspending personal financial liability for some COVID-affected small business owners. In November, the Hon. Ronnie Abrams, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, dismissed the lawsuit challenging these protections. Judge Abrams cited the “almost 1,000 pages of written testimony,” including those submitted by VOLS, that described “the harms [that advocates] believed the laws would ameliorate.” In December 2020, the complaining landlords appealed the decision to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
VOLS is committed to New York City’s small business community and stands ready to assist during these unimaginable times. With support from our pro bono partners Michael Harris and Jonathan Herstoff of Haug Partners LLP, on March 25, 2021 the VOLS Microenterprise Project submitted an additional amicus brief imploring the appellate court to affirm Judge Abrams’ decision.
The VOLS amicus brief defended two laws enacted by New York City Council in May 2020, including the Commercial Tenant Harassment Law and the Guaranty Law, each of which provides critical relief to small business owners at a time of unprecedented need during the pandemic. The Harassment Law expands the definition of harassment to include threats by a landlord on the basis of a commercial tenant’s status as being impacted by COVID-19. The Guaranty Law temporarily suspends certain business owners’ personal liability for commercial rent obligations from March 7, 2020 to March 31, 2021. VOLS was a strong advocate of these measures during the legislative process, offering written testimony to share the perspective of our small business clients, who are often the target of commercial tenant harassment and face personal financial ruin because of personal guaranties they were pressured to sign by landlords.
Read the full amicus brief here. To read more about the first amicus brief, see this blog post.