Court Opinion

ID: 9748738
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:11:35.428713+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:38.908306
License: Public Domain

COLINS, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. In the present matter, considering the facts as found by the trial court, I do not believe that the Bureau’s attempts to locate Corrine Dorsi were unreasonable. Dorsi herself testified that when she moved from Hazlet, New Jersey to Middletown, New Jersey, she neglected to notify the tax collector or anyone else from Monroe County of her new address. In addition, the record reveals that Dorsi’s mail was never forwarded to her Middletown address subsequent to her move. It is reasonable to infer, therefore, that she also failed to notify the post office of her move. It is apparent that Dorsi failed to exert any effort to ensure that correspondence and obligations conducted via the postal service would continue to reach her following her move. I do not believe, therefore, that the Bureau had the responsibility of searching for Dorsi.
More importantly, however, the trial court found and the record confirms that Dorsi delegated all of the responsibilities for the property to Halpern. The trial court also found that Halpern was aware of the tax sale prior to, as well as, subsequent to its occurrence. Since Halpern and Dorsi’s son, Frank, shared living quarters in New York, it is reasonable to conclude that either her son or Halpern could have contacted her to inform her of the tax sale. That neither of these men did not contact Dorsi is the risk to *41which she exposed herself by delegating all responsibility for the property to Halpern.
Accordingly, I would affirm the order of the trial court.