Opinion
Argued February 15, 2000
March 30, 2000
In nineteen consolidated tax certiorari proceedings pursuant toReal Property Tax Law article 7 to review real property tax assessments on the petitioner's property, the petitioner appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Orange County (Palella, J.), dated October 8, 1998, which granted the respondents' motion to compel arbitration and stayed all proceedings.
Graubard Mollen Miller, New York, N.Y. (Edward H. Pomeranz and Kevin B. McGrath of counsel), for appellant.
Santemma and Deutsch, LLP, Mineola, N.Y. (Jon N. Santemma, Andrew M. Mahony, and Eugene K. Ferencik of counsel), for respondents.
DAVID S. RITTER, J.P., SONDRA MILLER, LEO F. McGINITY, SANDRA J. FEUERSTEIN, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.
The Supreme Court correctly concluded that the unambiguous language of the arbitration clause in the parties' "payments in lieu of taxes" agreement (see generally, Matter of EFCO Prods. v. Cullen, 161 A.D.2d 44 ) constituted an effective and enforceable contract demonstrating the parties' agreement to resolve their real property tax assessment disputes through arbitration (see,Baker v. Cole-Layer-Trumble Co., 42 A.D.2d 581 ). Furthermore, the court properly determined that the respondents did not waive their right to proceed to arbitration based on the parties' correspondence and course of conduct.
The appellant's remaining contentions are without merit.
RITTER, J.P., S. MILLER, McGINITY, and FEUERSTEIN, JJ., concur.
DECISION ORDER ON MOTION
Motion by the respondents on an appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Orange County, dated October 8, 1998, to strike pages 371 to 572 of the record on appeal on the ground that they contain matter dehors the record. By decision and order of this court dated November 19, 1999, the motion was held in abeyance and was referred to the Justices hearing the appeal for determination upon the argument or submission thereof.
Upon the papers filed in support of the motion, the papers filed in opposition thereto, and upon the argument of the appeal, it is
ORDERED that the motion is denied.
RITTER, J.P., S. MILLER, McGINITY, and FEUERSTEIN, JJ., concur.