Decisional law also supports the proposition that the statute was designed to protect the landlord's successor in interest in the {**12 AD3d at 92}property in the event of a tenant's default (see e.g. Glass v Janbach Props., Inc., 73 AD2d 106, 108-109 [1980] ["A landlord requires [a security] deposit, although still the property of the tenant, to attain the status of a protected creditor should the tenant breach the lease. It is in anticipation of just such a situation as the one presented here that the landlord assures himself of adequate protection should the finances of a tenant falter"]; Matter of Atlas, 217 App Div 38, 41 [1926] ["the sum was paid to the lessors as a fund continuing to belong to the lessee, but intrusted to the lessors to hold as security against defaults of the lessee in accordance with the terms of the lease, and finally, if not previously required to make good defaults of the lessee, to be applied in payment of the rent for the last months of the term"]).