The state’s highest court heard oral arguments Tuesday on whether a lower court was right to rule that a major New York developer could keep a nearly $4 million deposit from the botched sale of waterfront property on Staten Island.

In February 2016, the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled that Muss Development was not required to return a prospective buyer’s nearly $4 million deposit on a 23-acre parcel of land on Raritan Bay in Staten Island (NYLJ, Feb. 8 2016).