A recent article in the New York Times discusses new legal developments relating to the Westchester County, New York fair housing settlement. For those who are unfamiliar with the situation, a lawsuit was brought in 2009 by a public interest group against Westchester County, alleging housing discrimination. In order to…
Our firm often interacts with other professionals, such as doctors, architects, and accountants, in the course of our practice. This can happen in several ways. The first is when such services are needed by our clients in the course of litigation. For example, an architect may be needed to evaluate…
A purchaser of real estate in New York State typically has plenty to evaluate in determining whether to buy a property. Usually the evaluation is limited to the four corners enclosed by the property line. This blog post addresses the matters that are beyond the property line that should concern…
Recent extreme weather conditions in the New York metropolitan area have caused great hardship for many of its residents. We hope that those individuals and families who suffered damage or destruction of their residences are in the process of recovery. This blog post will discuss some of the legal issues…
Our firm is often retained to defend, as well as prosecute, foreclosure actions in New York State. When we are representing the defendant in a commercial or residential foreclosure action, we examine many legal issues to determine whether the action can be successfully defended in Court. Often, a defendant is…
A constructive trust is a legal concept which may occur in the ownership of real property in New York State. It can be imposed by a Court in New York State when there is evidence that the actual ownership of property is not accurately reflected in the deed to the…
One of the main purposes behind the formation of a corporation in New York State is to insulate the principals of the corporation from personal liability for the corporation’s debts and obligations. The general law is that once a corporate is legally formed, and the business observes the specific requirements…
The Wall Street Journal recently reported the filing of a lawsuit by “Law & Order” actress S. Epatha Merkerson concerning conditions in her New York City cooperative apartment. While the lawsuit has gained the attention of the press because it involves a celebrity, the conditions described in the lawsuit are…
A prior blog post discussed issues relating to a property partition action in New York State. To summarize, when two or more co-owners of a property are unable to agree on the disposition of a jointly-owned property, a partition action may be brought by one of the owners. The Court…
As a previous blog post has discussed, Westchester County settled a lawsuit brought in 2009 which alleged that the county falsely certified that it had complied with federal fair housing requirements when it accepted community development funds. This lawsuit was settled under a consent order under which Westchester County agreed…