Page 26 - WCBA Appellate Practice Committee CLE May 2024-Handout

“TPT Program”). The TPT program, established by Local Law No 37 of the City of New York, enables the
Commissioner of Finance to, under certain circumstances, execute a deed transferring the titles for tax-
delinquent properties directly to third parties designated by the New York City Department of Housing
Preservation and Development. Under the program, a four month redemption period following the
entry of a judgment of foreclosure permits an owner to redeem the real property at issue by paying the
tax arrears in full or requesting an installment agreement to pay the amounts owed to the Commission
of Finance. Once the four month period has passed, the Commissioner of Finance has discretion to
transfer title to the property. In doing so, the property owner’s interest is extinguished and they receive
nothing for the value of the property in excess of the value of the tax lien. The defendants moved,
separately, to vacate the judgments of foreclosure entered against the properties. Additionally, the
defendants who had their properties transferred to a nonparty separately moved to set aside the deeds
transferring said properties. The Supreme Court, among other things, granted those branches of the
defendants’ separate motions which were to vacate the judgments of foreclosure and granted those
branches of the motions by certain defendants to set aside the deeds transferring the properties to the
nonparty. This Court found that the City of New York had established that it had properly mailed notices
of foreclosures to the defendants. The defendants’ bare denials of receipt of the notices of foreclosure,
without more, were insufficient to overcome the presumption of regularity of mailing or the
presumption of regularity of all proceedings taken in this action. Additionally, this Court found that the
defendants’ motions were time barred due to their failure to move to vacate the judgments of
foreclosure or to take any action to redeem the properties within the four month redemption period.
This Court has previously held that where, as here, the defendant property owners failed to interpose a
timely answer or to redeem the property during the four month period following the entry of the
judgment of foreclosure, they are not entitled to compensation for any surplus money as a result of the
foreclosure and transfer of the property under the TPT program. Under the circumstances of this case,
no exceptional circumstances exist that are necessary to apply the doctrine of equitable estoppel.
Therefore, under the law, the Supreme Court should have denied those branches of the defendants’
separate motions which were to vacate the judgments of foreclosure and to vacate the deeds
transferring certain real properties to a third party. This Court nonetheless expressed concern that,
under the TPT program, the loss of property ownership without compensation is a widespread
occurrence which often affects minorities which is an issue that the City Council should address.

Matter of DeNigris v Smithtown Cent. Sch. Dist., 217 AD3d 95 [July 12, 2023] [Justice Ford opinion;
Justices Brathwaite Nelson, Miller, and Dowling concur]

HOLDING: In this article 78 proceeding, this Court determined an issue of first impression with respect to
Education Law § 3012, holding that a probationary teacher could only receive “Jarema credit” towards
tenure for substitute teaching performed in the same school district in which they were seeking tenure.
The petitioner was therefore not entitled to tenure by estoppel and the school district’s determination,
in effect, to terminate his employment was not error.

FACTS: The petitioner was appointed to a probationary term as a special education teacher by the
school district in Suffolk County with a four year probationary period. Prior to the end of his
probationary period, the School District informed the petitioner that he would be terminated. The
petitioner resigned prior to his termination. He then commenced this CPLR Article 78 proceeding to

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