Opinion
December 24, 1990
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Molloy, J.).
Ordered that the appeal from the judgment entered December 11, 1985, is dismissed, as that judgment was superseded by the judgment entered April 20, 1988; it is further,
Ordered that the judgment entered April 20, 1988, is reversed, on the law, and the proceeding is dismissed; and it is further,
Ordered that the respondents-appellants are awarded one bill of costs.
In a related appeal (Fourth St. Assocs. v. Incorporated Vil. of Garden City, 168 A.D.2d 603 [decided herewith]) we have upheld the validity of Local Laws, 1984, No. 1 of the Incorporated Village of Garden City. In the present proceeding, we reject the petitioners' argument that they had acquired a "vested right" to operate a restaurant under the law as it existed previously, as well as the argument that the respondents-appellants acted in bad faith in preventing them from acquiring a "vested right", and in deliberately delaying determination of their application for a building permit. The evidence adduced by the petitioners at the trial was legally insufficient to warrant a finding that the respondents-appellants were guilty of "malice, oppression, manipulation or corruption" (Matter of Aversano v. Two Family Use Bd., 117 A.D.2d 665, 667) in their processing of the petitioners' application. The petitioners' application must, therefore, be reviewed under existing, rather than preexisting law (see also, Rocco v. City of Mount Vernon, 160 A.D.2d 863; Matter of McDonald's Corp. v. Village of Elmsford, 156 A.D.2d 687; Matter of Bibeau v. Village Clerk of Vil. of Tuxedo Park, 145 A.D.2d 478; cf., Matter Pokoik v. Silsdorf, 40 N.Y.2d 769; see also, 2 Anderson, New York Zoning Law and Practice § 26.23, at 409-410 [3d ed]). Bracken, J.P., Brown, Lawrence and Kooper, JJ., concur.