The Second Department granted DDWW&W’s request for a rare stay of judgment pending appeal on October 30, 2024 in a case involving the new and untested New York Criminal Procedure Law §420.45 (“CPL §420.45”) and its impact on property interests held by strangers to the underlying criminal proceeding. CPL§420.45, first effective August 14, 2019 and largely not litigated to date, permits a District Attorney to make a post-trial motion to quiet title on behalf of victimized homeowners following a criminal conviction on charges related to the filing of a false instrument. The statute permits the motion to affect title to be made in the context of the pending criminal proceeding, whereas historically title could only be altered in a separate civil proceeding. In the case handled by the Firm, the statute yielded an extreme and onerous result by eradicating the property interest held by the firm’s client, an innocent third party that was not involved in and had no knowledge of the underlying crime, without any meaningful due process. The Firm secured a stay of that Judgment pending appeal from the Second Department on those grounds. Peter S. Dawson briefed the matter and argued it at the Second Department for the Firm’s Client.
