On February 27, 2013, Jaspan Schlesinger LLP, led by partners Maureen Liccione and Andrew Mahony and counsel Robert Guido, won a significant reversal from the Appellate Division, Second Department, on behalf of the Town of North Hempstead and the special districts within the Town. The Town of North Hempstead, nineteen of its special garbage and other districts, forty Nassau County school districts and two individual taxpayers had filed three separate lawsuits last year against Nassau County challenging a law to repeal the sixty year old “County Guaranty”, known as Local Law No. 18.
The County’s repeal of the Guaranty was stricken by the Appellate Court. The Appellate Court recognized that Local Law No. 18 was unconstitutional and therefore, vacated it as null and void. The law had required that school districts, towns and special districts, i.e. garbage, fire districts, etc., reimburse taxpayers for real property taxes and ad valorem levies inaccurately or mistakenly assessed by the County. The County has been responsible for these payments since 1948 when it asked the State Legislature to enact the County Guaranty as a New York State Law.
Jaspan Schlesinger Partner Maureen Liccione said, “We are delighted with this victory. Our clients will no longer have to bear the burden of assessment errors which they do not commit.” Paying for the County’s assessment errors would have cost the Town and the special districts hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decades.