Co-ops and Condominiums

In co-op unit owner's action for declaratory and injunctive relief, unit owner appealed from Supreme Court's dismissal of the complaint. The Appellate Division modified to add a declaratory judgment in favor of the co-op corporation, and otherwise affirmed, holding that unit owner had not established that she succeeded to full title as a surviving joint tenant.

In 1992, unit owner and her father contracted to purchase shares associated with a co-op apartment. At closing, they stated an intention to take title as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and they so indicated on their mortgage application. However, when the co-op corporation issued a stock certificate to them it contained no language indicating that they were joint tenants. When the father died in 1997 unit owner requested that the board issue a certificate in her own name, and in 2004, the board did so after she supplied proof that her siblings waived any interest they might have in the apartment. In 2017, unit owner entered into a contract to sell the apartment, and the board approved the sale, but then reversed itself, explaining that the 2004 certificate was invalid and that it viewed the 1993 certificate as conveying a tenant in common. The board would not consent to the sale without approval from a court-appointed representative of the father's estate. Unit owner initiated a proceeding in Surrogate's Court to obtain that approval, but discontinued the proceeding when she discovered a Medicaid recovery lien against her stepmother's estate, which might have encumbered her father's estate. Although the father and stepmother were estranged by the tie of the initial purchase of the apartment, unit owner could not obtain proof of a divorce. Unit owner, proceeding pro se, then brought this action in Supreme Court for relief that would require them to recognize the validity of the 2004 stock certificate. Supreme Court dismissed the complaint.