Several months ago, I wrote an article for this column detailing the circumstances under which a cooperative

board could legally discriminate against those wishing permission to either occupy or purchase the stock and lease of a cooperative apartment (Boards Beware: Steer Clear of Discrimination, September 1994). That article explained that so long as a board did not engage in prohibited discrimination, its acts would be protected under the Court of Appeals' ruling in Matter of Levandusky v. One Fifth Avenue Apartment Corp., a case which insulated board members from liability for the consequences of good faith decisions made in the context of carrying out their elected responsibilities.

In recent years, however, there have been significant developments in one area of discrimination which has become increasingly troublesome for boards, namely, discrimination based upon real or perceived sexual orientation and/or marital status. In this rapidly evolving area of the law, co-ops frequently struggle with how to decide the occupancy or inheritance rights of individuals, often characterized as live-in lovers, who want to be treated as the equivalent of married spouses or blood-related family members.

In 1989 the Court of Appeals, in what has come to be known as the Braschi case, awarded rent controlled succession rights to a gay roommate who claimed and demonstrated domestic partner status. Later, amendments to the Rent Stabilization Law and Code echoed this change. Typical proprietary leases and House Rules, however, have been woefully inadequate to deal with these issues and often have not kept pace with the flurry of court and legislative activity in this area.

Traditionally, most co-op proprietary leases written prior to the court decisions and legislative and administrative changes mentioned above, restricted occupancy of a co-op unit to the shareholder and his or her immediate family members, usually including a spouse, children and other blood relatives. A typical use provision in such a proprietary lease would have read: