Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York October 4, 2012 (Cintron v. Calogero)

*457The application should have been denied, since DHCR’s position in the underlying CPLR article 78 proceeding was “substantially justified” (CPLR 8601 [a]), that is, it had a “reasonable basis both in law and fact” (Matter of New York State Clinical Lab. Assn. v Kaladjian, 85 NY2d 346, 356 [1995] [internal quotation marks omitted]).