[Hugin]

Under New York law, a tenancy agreement does not automatically end when a tenant dies.

Let me play devil's advocate here. It looks like the landlord is prevented from renting the apartment to someone else because the lease is still valid. Meanwhile the landlord may be paying a mortgage on the property, and is losing money on the vacany. All the 9/11 victim's families got at least $300,000 and most more like a million. So why don't they just pay the guy and not expect him to absorb the loss?

[Dakmar]

The landlady moved into the vacant apartment, which IMO negates any "loss of income" claims she may have.

[CdMGuy]

You don't know what you are talking about. In any state, a landlord cannot collect twice for the same rental unit. If I have a one year lease and move out after one month, if the landlord finds a new tenant to move in at the start of month 3, all the landlord suffered as a loss was two months rent plus the cost to find a new tenant, assuming the new tenant paid the same rent. The courts will not let the landlord collect rent from the new tenant and collect a windfall full 12 months rent from the old tenant.