New York Court of Appeals, 1955

City of New York v. Nelson

New York Court of Appeals · Decided July 8, 1955

309 N.Y. 94; 127 N.E.2d 827

Cases that cite this one

12 later published cases cite this decision.

Dwyer v. Lindsay (N.Y. 1969)
Covey v. Town of Somers (Supreme Court of the United States 1956)
Nelson v. City of New York (Supreme Court of the United States 1956)
Wasiluk v. City of Oneida, New York (District Court, N.D. New York 2022)
317 West 145th Street Corp. v. City of New York Department of Finance (N.Y. 1996)
Tree Realty Corp. v. City of New York (New York Supreme Court 1985)
Solomon v. City of New York (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1983)
Dwyer v. Lindsay (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1968)
Town of Somers v. Covey (N.Y. 1957)
Village of Ossining v. Lakin (New York Supreme Court 1957)
City of New York v. Nelson (N.Y. 1955)
City of New York v. Stolpensky (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1955)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam.

The order appealed from should be affirmed, without costs.

This is indeed a hard case. Defendants acquired title to the Powell Street property in 1934 and to the 45th Avenue property in 1938, and paid the real estate taxes due thereon. For the nonpayment of water charges, the city acquired title to these properties in an in rem tax foreclosure sale under title D of chapter 17 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, as follows:

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*97Thus, for total arrears of $887, the city acquired properties assessed at $52,000, one of which parcels was resold in excess of its assessed valuation.

The nonpayment of the water charges was due to the default of a trusted bookkeeper, and was discovered when he attempted suicide. The city continued to bill the estate of which plaintiffs are trustees for the real estate taxes on the 45th Avenue property for two years after it had acquired title.

Unfortunately, the power to afford relief here is not confided to the courts. The result suggests the need of legislation liberalizing the right of redemption, or giving to city officials the power to ameliorate such extreme hardships in appropriate cases.

Conway, Ch. J., Desmond, Dye, Fuld, Fboessel and Van Voobhis, JJ., concur; Bubke, J., taking no part.

Order affirmed.

Case-law data current through September 30, 2026. Source: CourtListener bulk data.