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Barrett v. Littles

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Feb 7, 1994
201 A.D.2d 444 (N.Y. App. Div. 1994)

Opinion

February 7, 1994

Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Durante, J.).


Ordered that the order and judgment is modified, on the law, by deleting the second decretal paragraph thereof which declared that the parties are tenants in common of certain property in Hollis, New York, and awarded the defendant summary judgment on the first cause of action, and substituting therefor a provision denying that relief; as so modified, the order and judgment is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

Contrary to the plaintiff's contentions, the Supreme Court correctly denied his motion for summary judgment. The plaintiff did not establish, as a matter of law, that he was a bona fide purchaser for valuable consideration of the Hollis property and as such, he may not invoke the protection of the recording statute (see, Real Property Law § 291) to have the defendant's subsequently recorded deed declared invalid (see, Glover v. Town of Union, 182 A.D.2d 929). Furthermore, the court correctly held that the plaintiff was not entitled to relief under the second cause of action, since the defendant's alleged misrepresentations were but promises to perform acts in the future, and absent proof that the defendant had no intention of performing when she made these alleged statements, the plaintiff has no fraud cause of action with regard to the Cambria Heights property (see, Brown v. Lockwood, 76 A.D.2d 721).

However, we do not agree with the court's decision to award summary judgment to the defendant declaring that she owns an undivided one-half interest in the Hollis property. While summary judgment may be awarded to a nonmoving party where appropriate (see, CPLR 3212 [b]), upon our review of the record we find that there are issues of fact as to the circumstances surrounding the execution of the deeds such that neither party is entitled to summary judgment declaring ownership of the Hollis property. Thompson, J.P., O'Brien, Ritter and Altman, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Barrett v. Littles

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Feb 7, 1994
201 A.D.2d 444 (N.Y. App. Div. 1994)
Case details for

Barrett v. Littles

Case Details

Full title:DAVID BARRETT, Appellant, v. MERLE LITTLES, Also Known as CAROLE PLASKETT…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

Date published: Feb 7, 1994

Citations

201 A.D.2d 444 (N.Y. App. Div. 1994)
607 N.Y.S.2d 134

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