NEW YORK CITY-In reporting Thursday’s state Supreme Court rulingthat former owner MetLife may beheld liable for rent overcharges to thousands of tenants at themassive Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town multifamily complex,the New York Law Journal quoted attorney Mitchell Posilkinas saying the decision’s impact was “potentially devastating.”Posilkin is general counsel for the Rent Stabilization Associationof New York, which was involved in the case as an amicus. He toldthe NYLJ, sister publication to GlobeSt.com, “There hasbeen wholesale reliance” over the years by the real estatecommunity on city and state housing authorities’ interpretations ofthe laws governing luxury deregulation of rent-stabilizedapartments.

Whether that devastation will come to pass is unclear, althoughattorney Kevin Smith sees dwindling interest in filing similarclass-action suits against owners of multifamily complexes. “It’sbecoming clear that this may not be the cash cow that everybodythought,” Smith tells GlobeSt.com.

The lack of clarity in the issues surrounding the Stuy-Towncase, which has been active since 2007, works against a clear-cutvictory for either side. For litigious tenants inspired by theStuy-Town case, as well as for attorneys working on the contingencyof winning a big judgment against owners, a payday could be a longtime coming if it arrives at all.