Coliseum Towers Associates v. County of Nassau

• Decision Date: 15 December 2003
• Docket Number: 2002-06181.
• Citation: Coliseum Towers Associates v. County of Nassau, 2 AD3d 562, 769 N.Y.S.2d 293, 2003 NY Slip Op 19441 (N.Y. App. Div. 2003)
• Parties: COLISEUM TOWERS ASSOCIATES, Respondent, v. COUNTY OF NASSAU et al., Appellants, et al., Defendant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

2 A.D.3d 562

769 N.Y.S.2d 293

2003 NY Slip Op 19441

COLISEUM TOWERS ASSOCIATES, Respondent, v.COUNTY OF NASSAU et al., Appellants, et al., Defendant.

2002-06181.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Second Department.

December 15, 2003.

In an action, inter alia, for a judgment declaring that the plaintiff Coliseum Towers Associates is not obligated to pay real property taxes assessed against the land portion of certain premises it leased from the defendant County of Nassau, the defendants County of Nassau, Board of Supervisors of the County of Nassau, Board of Assessors of the County of Nassau, and the County Treasurer of the County of Nassau appeal, as limited by their brief, from so much of a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Rossetti, J.), entered May 28, 2002, as, upon a decision of the same court dated March 29, 2002, after a nonjury trial, declared that they were not entitled to bill or collect from the plaintiff land taxes paid after April 30, 1987, or to bill or collect from the plaintiff land taxes from the date of the judgment to the end of the lease, and enjoined them from billing and collecting from the plaintiff land taxes with respect to the subject premises or declaring the plaintiff in default of its obligations under the lease for not paying such taxes, and is in favor of the plaintiff and against them in the principal sum of $26,412,009.34.

Ordered that the judgment is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law and the facts, with costs, and it is declared that the defendantsCounty of Nassau, Board of Supervisors of the County of Nassau, Board of Assessors of the County of Nassau, and the County Treasurer of the County of Nassau are entitled to bill and collect from the plaintiff land taxes paid after April 28, 1981, and until the end of the lease.

In April 1981the defendantCounty of Nassau executed a 99year lease of land with the predecessor in interest of the plaintiff, Coliseum Towers Associates(hereinafter CTA).The lease required CTA to develop a portion of County-owned property known as Mitchel Field for commercial use.Pursuant to its obligations under the lease, CTA constructed a large-scale office building complex known as EAB Plaza on the subject land.Between 1984 and the commencement of this action in 1991, CTA paid real property taxes assessed against both the land and building portions of the subject premises, without protest.In this litigation, CTA asserts that the subject lease only obligated it to pay real property taxes assessed against the building.

The lease and similar County leases have been the subjects of prior litigation before this Court(seeAtria Assoc. v County of Nassau,181 AD2d 847[1992]).In the Atria case, where several of the plaintiffs therein, not including CTA, argued that their respective leases only obligated them to pay building taxes, we found that the operative tax language was "so confusing that it renders impossible any determination of the intention of the parties," and that "`the intent must be determined by ... evidence [and] inferences outside the written words of the instrument' "(Atria Assoc. v County of Nassau, supra at 851, quotingMallad Constr. Corp. v County Fed. Sav. & Loan Assn.,32 NY2d 285, 291[1973]).

A nonjury trial was held in the instant matter, wherein extrinsic evidence of the parties' conduct before and after execution of the lease was elicited.The trial court ruled in favor of CTA, finding, inter alia, that evidence of the parties' preexecution negotiations established the parties' intent that CTA was obligated only to pay taxes assessed against the building.

On an appeal from a judgment rendered after a nonjury trial, this Court's review is not limited to whether the trial court's decision was against the weight of the evidence (seeWe're Assoc. Co. v Rodin Sportswear,288 AD2d 465[2001];Ancewicz v Western Suffolk BOCES,282 AD2d 632[2001]).Rather, this Court may review the record as a whole and grant the judgment warranted (seeWe're Assoc. Co. v Rodin Sportswear, supra;Ancewicz v Western Suffolk BOCES, supra).

Contrary to the trial court's determination, the evidence of the parties' practical interpretation of the subject lease established that CTA was obligated to pay real property taxes assessed against both the land...