Citations
- 120 A.D. 590
Full opinion text
Gaynor, J.:
The learned judge below correctly decided this case. It is required by section .67 of the Tenement House Act (Laws of .1901, chap. 334) that “ every room ” in a tenement house “ shall have at least one window opening directly upon the street or upon a yard or court ”; and by the next section that the “ window area in each room ” shall be at least one tenth of the floor area of the room. And then section 71, as it was at first, provided in its entirety as follows: •
“ Alcoves.-^- In every tenement house hereafter erected where any room adjoins another room, and has eighty per centum or. more of one entire side open to the other room, and there is no door between, it shall be considered as part of the said room. • Under other circumstances every alcove shall be deemed a separate room for all purposes within the meaning of this act.” ■
But all of this section was. dropped in 1902 (chap. 352), and in its stead the following was substituted, viz.:
“ Alcoves.— Alcove rooms must conform to all the requirements of other rooms.”
The change thus made in the statute is this, viz.: By section 71 in its original form the requirement was that “ every room ” had to have at least one window, and the window area of each room had to be at least one tenth of the floor area of’the room; and in applying these requirements an “ alcove ” of a room had to be taken as a separate room, unless at least eighty per cent, of one side of it was open to the room it belonged to or was to be “ considered as part of ”. In other words, if eighty per cent, of the side of such alcove was not thus open, such alcove had to have a window or windows, according to its floor area, as though a separate room, but if its side was thus open it did not have to have any window; its floor area went with the floor area of the room it belonged to, and if there were in the main room window area equal to one tenth of the combined floor area of such room and its alcove, that sufficed. By the new section 71 all of this was done-away with, and it was simply provided instead that “alcove rooms” should he under the same rule as ah other rooms, i.