Does a tenant have to do equity by paying rent before raising the equitable defense of retaliatory eviction?

6 The holding in Portnoy v. Hill (1968) 57 Misc.2d 1097, 294 N.Y.Supp.2d 278, cited by landlord, that a tenant must "do equity" by paying rent before raising the equitable defense of retaliatory eviction is not persuasive. It is the landlord, when acting for an improper purpose such as racial discrimination, who corrupts the institutions of justice by using them wrongfully to seek eviction of the tenant. In any event, the tenant in the present case came to the court with clean hands, having fully paid her rent by the time she filed her answer to landlord's complaint.