Justice Thomas Whelan
In 2009, plaintiff County of Suffolk sued under RPAPL Article 15 for a declaration of its clear title to real property located in Ocean Beach on Fire Island. Underlying this demand for relief is the 2004 public auction of residential premises by plaintiff that were subsequently conveyed to Phifer in 2005. The terms of the sale included a deed restriction imposing a reverter in favor of the County which was mandated by the adoption of Local Law #13-1990 and then included in the Suffolk County Administrative Code. In its complaint, plaintiff alleged that its title reverted when Phifer breached the occupancy condition set forth in the deed by failing to occupy the premises or when he arranged with his mortgagee a short sale of the premises for $450,000 in 2009. That short sale effected a resolution of a foreclosure proceeding brought by Phifer’s mortgagee in 2006. The purchaser of the premises was a corporation owned solely by defendant Givens. The court granted partial summary judgment to the plaintiff to the extent that it declared that plaintiff is possessed of a valid and enforceable reverter in the premises that became automatic upon Phifer’s breach of occupancy requirement during the five-year term imposed in the deed.
