Case ID: ny-2d_78/html/1106-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Anita Van Gorder et al., Respondents, v Masterplanned, Incorporated, Formerly Known as Muttontown Holding Corp., Appellant, et al., Defendants.
    Argued October 8, 1991;
    decided November 25, 1991
    
      APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL
    
      Elliot Paskoff, Avrom E. Greenberg and Francis J. Hearn, Jr., for appellant.
    
      Jerry A. Weiss for respondents.
   OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, with costs, and plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment denied.

Inasmuch as a triable issue of fact exists as to whether plaintiffs, who claim to have acquired title to defendant’s property by adverse possession, acknowledged during the statutory 10-year period that actual ownership of the property rested with defendant, summary judgment should not have been awarded to plaintiffs. Such a concession, if found by the trier of fact to exist, would negate an essential element of plaintiffs’ adverse possession claim, namely, that they continued to possess the property under a claim of right throughout the statutory period (see, City of Tonawanda v Ellicott Cr. Homeowners Assn., 86 AD2d 118, 123; see also, Van Valkenburgh v Lutz, 304 NY 95, 99).

Chief Judge Wachtler and Judges Simons, Kaye, Alexander, Titone, Hancock, Jr., and Bellacosa concur in memorandum.

Order reversed, etc.