New York Life Insurance v. Hazlitt Realty Corp.

The question here involved is whether a receiver of real property in foreclosure may be sued by a tenant for acts of passive negligence, as distinguished from those of affirmative negligence.

In this Department it has been the general, if not the invariable rule, to deny such right. This practice has been founded upon the decision of this court in Matter of Fischer (168 App. Div. 326). Such decision is also the basis of text book writers for a similar holding (1 Wiltsie Mort. Forec. [4th ed.] § 619, p. 792; 3 Jones Mort. [8th ed.] § 1951, pp. 435, 436).

Matter of Fischer (supra) proceeded,…