Albany, NY
Litigation Lawyer at Albany, NY
Practice Areas: Litigation, Real Estate ... +2 more
OUTCOME: Appeal granted; decision below reversed
The trial court's denial of a motion by mortgage holder, Green Tree Credit LLC, for leave to intervene as a party defendant in a fraudulent conveyance action brought by a creditor of the mortgagor was ... reversed by the appellate court, and the creditor's fraudulent conveyance claim was dismissed.
OUTCOME: Summary judgment granted to plaintiff.
Plaintiff was the mortgagee of certain real property located inCounty of Chenango, State of New York and owned by Defendant Edward Hinman. After Hinman failed to pay taxes on the Property, Defendant C ... ounty of Chenango, through its treasurer, Defendant William Evans, commenced tax foreclosure proceedings under Article 11 of the New York Real Property Law. Plaintiff did not receive notice of the tax foreclosure proceedings because the County sent the notice to an address that was no longer being used by Plaintiff. While the tax foreclosure proceedings were pending, Plaintiff filed for bankruptcy in the Northern District of Illinois. In February 2003, the bankruptcy court entered an order of relief. Thereafter, in March 2003, the County obtained a default judgment in its favor in the tax foreclosure proceedings. As a consequence, the property was conveyed to the County of Chenango. Chenango County then conveyed its interest in the property to Defendant Windham Rd. Land Trust. Plaintiff brought the action claiming that: (1) by continuing with the tax foreclosure action, the County violated the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. 362; (2) by failing to provide proper notice of the tax foreclosure proceedings to Plaintiff, the County violated Plaintiff’s due process rights; and (3) the Chenango Defendants failed to comply with New York Real Property Tax Law 1125(1). Plaintiff sought to vacate the default judgment concerning the tax foreclosure proceeding and to cancel the subsequent transfers of interests in the Property. Defendant Windham Rd. Land Trust contended that it was a good faith purchaser and it should have been entitled to retain the property regardless of any incidental violation of the automatic stay. The Court found that there was no “good faith†exception to the automatic stay and granted summary judgment to the plaintiff on that basis.
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