Matter of Long Is. Automotive Group, Inc. v Board of Assessors of Nassau County

Matter of Long Is. Automotive Group, Inc. v Board of Assessors of Nassau County 2014 NY Slip Op 02586 Decided on April 16, 2014 Appellate Division, Second Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided on April 16, 2014
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORKAPPELLATE DIVISION : SECOND JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT
RANDALL T. ENG, P.J.
ROBERT J. MILLER
SYLVIA O. HINDS-RADIX
JOSEPH J. MALTESE, JJ.
2013-04903
(Index No. 407043/09)

[*1]In the Matter of Long Island Automotive Group, Inc., respondent,

v

Board of Assessors of Nassau County, et al., appellants.




Carnell T. Foskey, County Attorney, Mineola, N.Y. (Robert F. Van
der Waag of counsel), for appellants.
Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman, LLP, East Meadow, N.Y.
(M. Allan Hyman of counsel), for
respondent.


DECISION & ORDER

In a consolidated proceeding pursuant to RPTL article 7 to review tax assessments of the petitioner's real property for tax years 2009/10 through 2011/12, the appeal is from a supplemental judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Marano, J.), entered April 5, 2013, which, upon an order of the same court (Adams, J.), entered October 12, 2012, granting the petitioner's motion, inter alia, to compel the appellants to satisfy obligations that they incurred in connection with a stipulation of settlement executed pursuant to RPTL 523-b(9), and upon an order and judgment of the same court (Adams, J.) entered December 13, 2012, among other things, in favor of the petitioner and against the appellants, is in favor of the petitioner and against the appellants in the principal sum of $97,860.17.

ORDERED that the supplemental judgment is affirmed, with costs.

The petitioner, relying on a stipulation of settlement executed in accordance with RPTL 523-b(9) in this consolidated tax certiorari proceeding, moved to compel the appellants to satisfy obligations that they incurred in connection with the stipulation of settlement. The petitioner thereby sought to compel the appellants to authorize, calculate, and issue it a refund for the overpayment of real property taxes. The appellants, while acknowledging that a refund was due, argued that granting the relief requested in this and other similar proceedings, in the absence of funding in place to meet the underlying obligations, would result in "fiscal chaos" in Nassau County. As such, the appellants urged the Supreme Court to deny the motion and enter an order allowing them to "implement alternative plans" to ensure that the petitioner, and other similarly situated taxpayers, "are paid the refunds they are entitled to while preserving [the County's] fiscal integrity." The Supreme Court rejected this "fiscal chaos" defense and, among other things, entered a supplemental judgment in favor of the petitioner awarding it the principal sum of $97,860.17.

Contrary to the appellants' contention, the decisions of the Court of Appeals in Matter of Hellerstein v Assessor of Town of Islip (37 NY2d 1, 3) and Foss v City of Rochester (65 NY2d 247, 260) do not stand for the proposition that a court may decline to issue an award of damages or refunds against a municipality whenever such award will result in financial hardship (see Keyspan [*2]Generation, LLC v Nassau County, _____ AD3d_____, 2014 NY Slip Op 01721 [2d Dept 2014]). "Instead, these cases stand for the more limited proposition that, where a municipality has reasonably relied upon a widespread and longstanding practice (as in Matter of Hellerstein) or a statute is later invalidated (as in Foss), and where applying the invalidation retroactively would call into question a settled assessment roll or property rights based thereon,' a court may exercise its discretion by giving its holding only prospective application" (Keyspan Generation, LLC v Nassau County, ____ AD3d at _____ , 2014 NY Slip Op 01721, *3, quoting Matter of Hellerstein v Assessor of Town of Islip, 37 NY2d at 14; see Gandolfi v City of Yonkers, 101 AD2d 188, 197-198; Hurd v City of Buffalo, 41 AD2d 402, 406). No such situation is present in the instant case. Accordingly, under the circumstances presented here, the Supreme Court properly rejected the appellants' "fiscal chaos" defense, and granted the petitioner's motion to compel the appellants to satisfy obligations that they incurred in connection with the stipulation of settlement and, thus, to calculate and pay the refund owed to it.
ENG, P.J., MILLER, HINDS-RADIX and MALTESE, JJ., concur.

ENTER:

Aprilanne Agostino

Clerk of the Court