Opinion ID: 1439546
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Tupazes

Text: The Tupazes purchased two undeveloped properties in the Town of Plattsburgh, Clinton County, New York, in 1987. Since that time, these properties have been the subject of three tax foreclosure proceedings. The instant dispute arises from the alleged failure of defendants Clinton County and Janet Duprey, the Clinton County Treasurer, to give adequate notice of the foreclosure associated with unpaid property taxes from 2002. Between May 2002 and February 2003, defendants sent five letters by first class mail to the Tupazes notifying them of their overdue taxes. See Tupaz v. Clinton County, 499 F.Supp.2d 182, 184 (N.D.N.Y. 2007). The final letter, sent on February 11, 2003, warned the Tupazes that if their 2002 taxes were not paid by October 10, 2003, the County would initiate foreclosure proceedings. Each of the letters was addressed to the Tupazes at their home in Staten Island, New Yorkthe address that appeared on record in the county tax rolls and where defendants had sent previous notices of foreclosure. Id. None of the letters were returned as undeliverable. Id. The Tupazes contend that they never received these letters, although they acknowledge that the County's record of their home address was correct. Having received no response from the Tupazes, in October 2003, defendants included the Tupazes in a list of all delinquent taxpayers to whom they sent a Notice and Petition of Foreclosure (the Notice or Notice of Foreclosure), indicating that the final date for redemption of the property by paying the overdue taxes was January 16, 2004. Id. The Notice was sent to the Tupazes' Staten Island address via certified mail. [1] Id. Defendants subsequently received a delivery receipt for the Notice of Foreclosure, indicating that the letter was delivered on October 16. The delivery receipt did not contain a legible signature from the recipient indicating who received the package. Instead, the Signature box had a line drawn within it and did not otherwise contain a readily identifiable signature. In addition to the Notice, defendants published notice in two Clinton County newspapers pursuant to New York Real Property Tax Law § 1124. Id. While the parties dispute whether the Tupazes received the Notice, there is no dispute that defendants believed that it had been delivered. See id. at 185. Defendant Janet Duprey, the Clinton County Treasurer, attested that upon receiving the receipt, she presumed that the mailing ha[d] indeed been delivered and received. Id. (quoting Affidavit of Janet L. Duprey (Duprey Affidavit) ¶ 14). Duprey further assumed that the plaintiffs had indeed received the Notice because they had received numerous prior letters and warnings at the same address. (Duprey Affidavit ¶ 22.) She testified that, pursuant to standard practice for confirming illegible signatures, the County Treasurer's office confirmed, by checking the United States Postal Service website, that the Notice was delivered on October 16, 2003 within the zip code applicable to the Tupazes' residence. [2] After comparing the signature on the October 16 delivery receipt to previous delivery receipts for notices of foreclosure that had been sent to the Tupazes' Staten Island address, she concluded that previous notices had been accepted with equally indecipherable markings. According to Duprey, it was not at all unusual to receive a certified mail receipt with an illegible signature or simply a mark in the signature box indicating its receipt.  (Duprey Affidavit, ¶ 14 (emphasis added).) She was not aware of any other factor that would have suggested a failure to deliver the Notice. The Tupazes did not pay the overdue taxes, redeem the property, or otherwise respond by the appointed date, and the County initiated foreclosure proceedings in the County Court of Clinton County. On February 20, 2004, the County Court entered a default judgment of foreclosure against the Tupazes as well as several other taxpayers who had not redeemed their property. Tupaz, 499 F.Supp.2d. at 186. The County did not send the Tupazes a notice of judgment [3] and the Tupazes learned of the foreclosure in March 2004, when Mr. Tupaz called the County Treasurer's office and was told that the County had foreclosed on the properties. Id. The Tupazes contend that this call was the first time they learned that they owed taxes and that the County had instituted foreclosure proceedings. Duprey attested that, during this phone call, Mr. Tupaz admitted that he had signed the October 2003 delivery receipt. Shortly thereafter, the Tupazes sought to vacate the foreclosure and set aside the default judgment in state court. After concluding that the Tupazes were properly served with notice of foreclosure and that their motion to reopen proceedings was time-barred under the applicable statute of limitations, the court denied their request in a decision which was subsequently affirmed on appeal. See In re Foreclosure of Tax Liens by County of Clinton, 17 A.D.3d 914, 914-15, 793 N.Y.S.2d 596 (2005). The Tupazes then brought this Section 1983 action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, claiming that defendants' alleged failure to serve them with notice of the foreclosure deprived them of due process of law and that the state statute providing for personal notice of foreclosure is unconstitutional. The District Court (Thomas J. McAvoy, Judge ) concluded that the Tax Injunction Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1341, deprived it of subject matter jurisdiction over challenges to the enforcement of state tax law and, in the alternative, that the Notice of Foreclosure did not violate due process. The Tupazes then filed a timely appeal in our Court. On appeal, we concluded that the District Court had subject matter jurisdiction to resolve the Tupazes' claims. See Luessenhop v. Clinton County, 466 F.3d 259, 264-68 (2d Cir.2006). [4] We remanded the case for reconsideration of the Tupazes' due process claims in light of the Supreme Court's intervening decision in Jones v. Flowers, 547 U.S. 220, 225, 126 S.Ct. 1708, 164 L.Ed.2d 415 (2006) (holding that when mailed notice of a tax sale is returned unclaimed, the State must take additional reasonable steps to attempt to provide notice to the property owner before selling his property, if it is practicable to do so). See Luessenhop, 466 F.3d at 271-72. We ordered that, on remand, the District Court make a finding as to whether the County thought that the Notice of Foreclosure had failed to reach the Tupazes and, if so, whether their failure to act is excused because [the first class] letters presumably had reached their desired destination. Id. at 272. On remand, the District Court considered additional evidence and arguments, including the Duprey Affidavit, and granted summary judgment in favor of defendants. The Court determined that [t]here is no evidence presented from which a reasonable fact finder could conclude that Defendants had any reason to believe that the Plaintiffs had not received the Notice. Tupaz, 499 F.Supp.2d at 188. The Court noted that neither the Notice nor the previous mailings had been returned. Id. It further reasoned that any suspicions about the line in the signature box were reasonably resolved by the confirmation on the Postal Service website. Id. Finally, the District Court observed that there is no evidence that ... anyone at Clinton County was aware of any facts before the final date of redemption that [the Tupazes] did not receive adequate notice. Id. at 189. On that basis, the Court concluded that defendants had provided sufficient notice of the foreclosure to satisfy the requirements of due process. Id. at 190. The Court also concluded that New York Real Property Tax Law § 1125, which requires only certified mailing of a notice of foreclosure but does not require a return of the mail receipt, is consistent with the standard set forth in Jones for due process. Id. Citing our decision in Weigner v. City of New York, 852 F.2d 646, 652 (2d Cir. 1988) (concluding that due process does not require notice of the entry of foreclosure judgment where the property owner received notice of the foreclosure proceedings and an opportunity to respond), the Court rejected the Tupazes' challenge to the constitutionality of New York Real Property Tax Law § 1131. Tupaz, 499 F.Supp.2d at 190. The Court further concluded that neither due process nor equal protection required that property owners be given a right to redeem their property after foreclosure. Id. at 190-91. In considering their claim that due process required they be given a right to any surplus proceeds obtained by the County in excess of the amount of taxes owed, the District Court ruled that the Tupazes lacked standing to bring this claim because the property had not yet been sold and the County had not yet obtained any surplus proceeds. Id. at 192. The Court also observed that, assuming that the Tupazes had standing, due process did not require that plaintiffs be afforded a right to any surplus. Id. This appeal followed.