In re 127 John Street Associates

On April 18, 2005, in In re 127 John Street Associates, 2005 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 6729; 54 Collier Bankr. Cas. 2d (MB) (S.D.N.Y.), the U.S. District Court issued a critical ruling. The court decided the entity which had purchased a commercial building in Manhattan could not appeal from an interim order which required the purchaser to deposit $6.2 million in escrow for the benefit of former commercial tenants who claimed a substantial share of the prior real estate tax refund. In the related earlier ruling, which was not reported (In re 127 John Street Associates, 93-B-46171 (CB) (Bankr. S.D.N.Y., Nov.12, 2004)), the petition of Kucker Marino Winiarsky & Bittens, LLP for the interim order was granted by the bankruptcy court. At KMWB’s urging, the bankruptcy court reversed its own prior orders which had been predicated on inaccurate fact representations by the purchaser of property, and the court reopened the chapter 11 case to permit the former tenants to claim a share of the $6.2 million real estate tax refund which had been withheld by the purchaser of property. In addition, the purchaser was ordered to provide explicit notice to the former tenants; the court found the first notice by the purchaser was severely inadequate.