2023 New York Laws › RPA - Real Property Actions and Proceedings › Article 19-B - Special Proceeding to Convey Title to Abandoned Commercial and Industrial Real Property to City, Town, or Village › 1984 - Decision and Judgment of the Court.

* §  1984.  Decision and judgment of the court. 1. If any party to the
proceeding contests the issue of abandonment, the burden of proving that
the commercial or industrial real property is abandoned  shall  be  upon
the  department,  and  the court shall make a finding based on the facts
before it.
2. (a) Upon application by any party to the proceeding, the court  may
order  a  stay of the proceeding for such time as the court deems proper
to permit the mortgagee or lienor to foreclose its mortgage or lien  and
to  permit  the owner, mortgagor or lienor to enter the property to make
repairs or if the property be vacant to seal or continuously  guard  the
building  as  required  by law. The court may impose such terms upon the
owner, mortgagee or lienor as it deems proper for the issuance  of  said
order,  including  the  posting  of  such  security,  if  any, as it may
require. At the expiration of the period prescribed by  the  court,  the
court  may  extend  the time of the owner, mortgagee or lienor to comply
with the order, dismiss the proceeding if the owner, mortgagee or lienor
has substantially complied with  the  order,  or  issue  a  judgment  as
provided  in  subdivision three of this section, if the court finds that
the owner, mortgagee or lienor has failed to comply with the order.
(b)  Notwithstanding  paragraph  (a)  of  this  subdivision,  if   the
department has brought a proceeding pursuant to section nineteen hundred
eighty-three  of this article based on a finding of abandonment pursuant
to  paragraph  (c)  of  subdivision  one  of  section  nineteen  hundred
eighty-one of this chapter, the court may not grant a stay for more than
six months, nor extend it for more than an additional three months.
3.  Upon a finding by the court that the commercial or industrial real
property is abandoned, the court shall enter a final judgment  in  favor
of  the petitioner. The fact that an administrator has been appointed as
to the subject property shall not prevent  the  court  from  entering  a
final  judgment  in  favor of the petitioner upon a finding by the court
that the commercial or industrial real property is abandoned. The  final
judgment  shall  direct  such  officer  of the city, town, or village in
which the commercial or industrial real property is located  as  may  be
designated  in the judgment to execute and record a deed conveying title
of the premises to the city, town, or village thirty days after entry of
judgment. Upon the entry of such judgment the  city,  town,  or  village
shall be seized of an estate in fee simple absolute in such land and all
persons,  including  the  state  of  New  York,  infants,  incompetents,
absentees and non-residents who may have had any right, title, interest,
claim, lien or equity of redemption in  or  upon  such  lands  shall  be
barred and forever foreclosed of all such right, title, interest, claim,
lien or equity of redemption.
4.  The  provisions  of  section  three hundred seventeen of the civil
practice law and rules  shall  not  apply  to  a  proceeding  instituted
pursuant  to this article. A motion or action to set aside a judgment in
a proceeding instituted pursuant to this article on the  grounds  either
that  there  was a failure to comply with the provisions of this article
as to notice or that a defect in the proceeding prejudiced a substantial
right of a party may be instituted within one hundred twenty days  after
the deed vesting title in a city has been recorded, but not thereafter.
5.  The  right, title and interest of a purchaser or incumbrancer of a
property as to which a deed vesting title in a city,  town,  or  village
has  been  recorded pursuant to a judgment obtained through this article
shall not be affected or impaired by a motion or action instituted  more
than  one  hundred  twenty days after such deed vesting title in a city,
town, or village has been recorded.
* NB Repealed June 30, 2025