Category Archives: Condominiums

This was originally posted on the SGR Blog.

New York real property development disputes often require the Court to navigate hundreds of pages of lengthy and dense contracts, agreements, or understandings that are the source of contention despite having been drafted by experienced attorneys and signed by sophisticated investors. But, as a recent case illustrates, matters become even more contentious where family members informally invest large sums of money with little concomitant paperwork.

Chun You Cheng (“Cheng”) and Chiu Ming Yan Cheng (“Chiu-Ming”) brought a derivative action against family members and other entities (“defendants”) seeking a judgment declaring the ownership interests of the investors (or their successors or assigns) in Garden View LTD (“GVL”). The Court held a 10-day “bench” (non-jury) trial over several months.

This was originally published on the SGR Blog.

Questions presented: Was it proper for Supreme Court to annul the determination by the Board of Standards and Appeals to approve a new 55-story condominium building at 200 Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan? For Supreme Court to direct the demolition of an unspecified number of floors from the building? And were legal proceeding moot because the building was substantially completed and the Committee of Environmentally Sound Development and the Municipal Art Society of New York failed to exercise continued due diligence to halt the project by not seeking injunctive relief at every stage of the protracted litigation?

The building lot was originally part of a single parcel of land, which in the 1960s consisted of five buildings along West End Avenue. In 1987, the DOB approved a subdivision into two separate parcels that included partial tax lots and, subsequently, two mergers with four other tax lots. In 2015, the DOB approved another zoning lot subdivision, creating two new zoning lots, both of which contained partial tax lots, and filed a declaration with the City Register. The pertinent subdivided zoning lot included the improved land at 200 West End Avenue, the unimproved land at 200 Amsterdam Avenue, and portions of four other tax lots.

This was originally published on the SGR Blog.

What Standard Applies in Article 78 Proceeding Challenging Decision of Board of Managers?

Proceedings challenging board decisions under Article 78 of the Civil Practice Rule are governed by the test of whether the disputed action was “arbitrary and capricious”. But challenges to the action of members of the boards of residential condominiums are governed by the “business judgment rule”. So which standard governs when a condominium unit owner questions the conduct of the board of managers?  A recent case addresses that question.

Notoya Green, as Trustee of a family trust, sought an Article 78 order: annulling and setting aside, as arbitrary and capricious, the rejection by the Board of Managers of Diamond on Duane Condominium, of her alteration application with respect to the renovation of two units; and  compelling the Board to consent to the requested alterations or deeming that no consent was required under the building’s governing documents.