Lily Dale Assembly, Inc. v. County of Chautauqua

Callahan, J. (dissenting).

Section 500 of the Real Property Tax Law imposes a duty to ascertain the rightful owner of real property within the county. While subdivision 4 of section 504 of the Real Property Tax Law excuses an error in listing the name on the tax assessment roll, it does not purport to nullify section 500. It is still the law in New York that strict compliance with the prerequisites for a tax sale is required because of the seriousness of divesting a person of his property (see London v Hammel, 27 NY2d 630; Wiesniewski v Basinait, 59 AD2d 1028; Burden v Max-Mor Dev. Co., 53…