I am involved in a holdover eviction case for an apartment I no longer live in. I did not get served court papers. Help.

Dear Brooklyn Tenant: You will need to figure out why you were sued even though you moved out, the landlord accepted your key and your security deposit was returned. But you will need to make your own set of the papers because you were not served. To get a set of papers, you have to do this yourself, and spend some money. The court copy machines charge 25 cents/page. You could travel to the Court on Tuesday, and proceed to the courtroom where the case is scheduled if you know where to go. If not, then you first need to find the case online. At the court room, locate the Part Clerk, request to see the file for the case on Wednesday. You will need to leave ID with the clerk to photocopy the file. If you do not have the papers, but you know the court room part, and the index number, that is sufficient information for the Part Clerk for you to request the file. If you do not know the court room part or the index number, then you could look up the case here: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/ecourtsMain Select WebHousing. Fill in the sign in. Click "I Agree." Click "party search" Enter your name, select "Respondent", the County and 2014 for the year. If you got this far, the case and caption should pop up. Print that page. That will show the name of the case, index number. Click "Show All Appearances" and you will be at the page that includes the time and date of the case and and Part (Court Room) . Print that page. Take your information to court on Tuesday so you have this information to show the Part Clerk if requested. You want to copy all the papers in the file and in particular the affidavit of service of the process server who claimed to have served the Notice of Petition and Petition. You will observe from that information how you were or were not "served" with the court papers. If you were not "served" in person and the landlord is not looking for a money judgment, you have to be careful about your next step. Just coming to court and not filing an answer objecting to the service of the papers and asserting a defense based on your prior surrender of possession and turn over of the keys, will make you subject to the court's power to render a judgment against you. You want the case dismissed against you as though the lawsuit were never filed. Read about how to Answer a holdover petition at: http://www.nycourts.gov/COURTS/nyc/housing/answering.shtml Because you know this case exists you are one step ahead of other persons who were not served with court papers and who do not know when the case is in court. The court will not know you were not served and that you moved out without you providing that information and seeing this matter through until the case is dropped permanently against you.

Mr. Smollens has offered great advice, but it involves a lot of work and I have a different view. See what the roommate does. Maybe he'll win the case. Maybe he'll lose. Maybe he won't show up and there will be a default. Maybe the landlord only wants possession and won't go after you for the back rent. And, if you end up with a judgment against you for the rent, then you sue the former roommate for reimbursement. I am assuming your portion of 3 months rent will be under $5,000, which can be dealt with in small claims court.