Henry Street Settlement v. Town of Yorktown

• Decision Date: 18 April 1983
• Citation: 461 N.Y.S.2d 355,93 A.D.2d 855
• Parties: HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT, Appellant, v. The TOWN OF YORKTOWN, a municipal corporation, et al., Respondents.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 355

461 N.Y.S.2d 355

93 A.D.2d 855

HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT, Appellant, v. The TOWN OF YORKTOWN, a municipal corporation, et al., Respondents.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division,

Second Department.

April 18, 1983.

Cuddy & Feder, White Plains (Thomas R. Beirne and Ruth E. Roth, White Plains, of counsel), for appellant.

Arthur J. Selkin, Town Atty., Yorktown Heights (Sirlin & Sirlin, Mamaroneck [Roger H. Sirlin, Mamaroneck], of counsel), for respondents.

Before GIBBONS, J.P., and THOMPSON, BRACKEN and NIEHOFF, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.

In an action, inter alia, to declare plaintiff's subject "Camp Echo Hill" property exempt from real estate taxation and to reinstate the exemption existing until the defendants changed the status of plaintiff's real property from tax exempt to fully taxable on the 1979 assessment roll, plaintiff appeals from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Westchester County, entered March 24, 1982, which dismissed the complaint.

Judgment modified, on the law, by deleting the provision dismissing the complaint and substituting a provision declaring that the property is not exempt and that it was properly placed on the assessment roll. As so modified, judgment affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

We agree with Special Term that the minimal activities of plaintiff at the subject site during the time period in issue provide no basis for the grant of tax exemption for that assessment roll (1979 roll, 1980 taxes). However, the court should have made an appropriate declaration (see Lanza v. Wagner, 11 N.Y.2d 317, 334, 229 N.Y.S.2d 380, 183 N.E.2d 670, app. dsmd. 371 U.S. 74, 83 S.Ct. 177, 9 L.Ed.2d 163).