2023 New York Laws › RPA - Real Property Actions and Proceedings › Article 6 - Action to Recover Real Property › 612 - Where Action Cannot Be Maintained; Action Based on Reverter or Breach of Condition Subsequent.

§  612. Where action cannot be maintained; action based on reverter or
  breach of condition subsequent. 1. Except as otherwise provided in  this
  section,  an action to recover the possession of real property cannot be
  maintained where it is founded upon a claim of reverter of an estate  in
  fee  conveyed  upon special limitation or founded upon a claim of breach
  of a condition subsequent, other than a condition of a lease for a  term
  of  years,  unless  (a)  within  ten  years  after the occurrence of the
  reverter or the first occurrence of the breach, the  plaintiff,  or  any
  predecessor  in  interest then entitled to possession or to exercise the
  power of termination, shall have  served  upon  the  person  or  persons
  against  whom the action might then have been commenced a written demand
  that possession be delivered, stating the ground thereof, and the action
  is commenced within one year thereafter or (b), if  no  such  demand  is
  served, the action is commenced within such ten years.
2.  Where the reverter or breach occurred before September 1, 1963, an
  action may be maintained if demand is made as provided in  this  section
  before  the  expiration of ten years computed from the occurrence of the
  reverter or the  first  occurrence  of  the  breach,  or  on  or  before
  September  1,  1965,  whichever  is  later,  and the action is commenced
  within one year thereafter or if, without previous demand as provided in
  this section, the action is commenced before the expiration of ten years
  computed from the occurrence of the reverter or the first occurrence  of
  the breach, or on or before September 1, 1965, whichever is later.
3. The demand shall be served either personally or by mailing the same
  by  certified  mail  addressed to the person or persons against whom the
  action might then have been  commenced,  at  his  or  their  last  known
  address or addresses.
4.  The  demand  may  be  made on behalf of an infant by his parent or
  guardian or by the person with whom he resides, may be made on behalf of
  an incompetent by the committee of his person or property,  and  may  be
  made  on  behalf of a conservatee by the conservator of his property. If
  the person entitled to maintain the action shall have died,  the  demand
  may  be  made  either  by  the  persons  succeeding  to the right of the
  decedent,  or  one  of  them,  or  on  their  behalf  by  the   personal
  representative of the decedent.
5.  The  demand  shall  become  ineffective  unless  action to recover
  possession in accordance therewith is commenced within one year from the
  date of service thereof. If no action is commenced, or no such demand is
  served within the time specified in subdivisions  1  or  2,  or  if  the
  demand  served  becomes  ineffective,  it shall be conclusively presumed
  that the possibility of reverter  by  reason  of  which  the  estate  is
  claimed  to have reverted, or the power of termination for breach of the
  condition which is claimed to have been broken, was extinguished  at  or
  before  the  date  when  the  reverter would have occurred or a right of
  entry would have accrued by reason of such possibility  of  reverter  or
  breach of such condition.
6. The operation of this section is not affected by any disability, or
  by  the  fact  that  the  person against whom the action might have been
  brought within the  period  herein  provided  was  during  that  time  a
  non-resident  or  absent from the state, and is not affected by any lack
  of knowledge on the part of any person that the reverter or  breach  has
  occurred,  unless  it  is  established  that  the  facts  upon which the
  reverter occurred, or the facts constituting the breach, were  concealed
  from  the  plaintiff  or his predecessor in interest by actual fraud. If
  such fraud be established, the time provided in subdivision 1 or 2 shall
  commence to run when the facts are discovered by a  person  entitled  to
  serve the demand as provided in this section.
7.  This  section  does  not limit any other statute or rule of law or
  equity by which a possibility of reverter or right of entry is or may be
  extinguished or rendered unenforceable, or by which an action to recover
  possession of the property may be extinguished or barred.