For those unaccustomed to the range of comedy and heartbreak those factors can produce, it is worthwhile to begin with this: By law, Ms. Dittmer says, her monthly rent is $94.18, roughly the price of a pair of sneakers that will get you laughed off any basketball court in the city.
Ms. Dittmer moved into her apartment on the top floor of a three-story building in Bay Ridge in 1965, about a month before Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs released "Wooly Bully."
"To date," her lawyer wrote with lawyerly reserve, "plaintiff continues to occupy said apartment."
The best reason, and perhaps the only reason, to occupy the same apartment for 41 years is rent control, a program established to address a housing crisis in postwar time, post-World War II time in particular. Under those rules, Ms. Dittmer's rent for the apartment at 319 82nd Street was set at $80.72 a month in June 1970 and raised to $94.18 in March 1983, according to the lawsuit.
But since 1976, the lawsuit says, she has often been charged more than that. A lawyer for Ms. Dittmer, Colleen Buckley, said the amount she paid ranged from the maximum legal rent to as much as $570 monthly.
In recent years, property records show, the building was sold twice. Ms. Buckley said those transactions stirred the tenants to ask legal questions, which in turn led to the suit.
First, in August 2004, the estate of Anna Romanczuk sold the building to a company called 319-82 L.L.C., which shares an address with Anthony Romanczuk, the executor of Ms. Romanczuk's will. A phone number for Mr. Romanczuk is out of service. In May 2005, Ms. Dittmer received a lease renewal form listing the rent at $570, according to the lawsuit.
In October 2005, Mario Vaccaro bought the building, for $900,000, property records show. He has an unlisted telephone number, and his lawyer, Anthony Carone, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
An owner falsely listed the apartment as rent stabilized, instead of rent controlled, the lawsuit says, "in an intentional effort to trick plaintiff into a lease more than six times the legal rent." Under rent stabilization, landlords have more leeway to raise the rent.
In the lawsuit, Ms. Dittmer contends that her rent-controlled status was a matter of public record when Mr. Vaccaro bought the building, so he "knew or should have known what the maximum collectible rent for the unfurnished apartment was."
Since 1976, the lawsuit says, Ms. Dittmer has been overcharged, in total, $84,465.80, which works out to $237.93 a month.
In the lawsuit, Ms. Dittmer, who did not return calls seeking comment, is seeking $253,397.40, or three times the total overpayment, plus lawyers' fees and interest, for a round total of $350,000.
Ms. Buckley said such disputes sometimes end in settlements involving free rent for a number of months. In this case, she said, "there's no way that could be the resolution, mathematically speaking."