Deposit Returned

Better Late Than Never

It took Richard Nye three years to get his $450,000 deposit back, but he finally did last month, after a court decision that awarded him 9 percent interest on top of it.

Mr. Nye, an investment banker in Manhattan, put the money down in 1993 as a 10 percent deposit on an oceanfront house off Further Lane, then owned by the estate of Helen Mann. Before the deal closed, however, he learned that he was buying a lot in a nonexistent subdivision.

The three-lot subdivision created on the land in 1983 had a legal cloud over it, according to Mr. Nye's attorney. Specifically, a garage and some sheds on the property had never been moved as per a Planning Board order, nor had variances been obtained to legalize them. Doing so was a condition of the board's approval, and Mr. Nye's lawyer argued the approval had expired in 1984, a year after it was filed, when the conditions went unmet.

Sued Estate

"How could you buy a lot in a subdivision that didn't exist?" said the lawyer, David Lazer, this week. Mr. Lazer is a partner in the Melville firm of Lazer, Aptheker, Feldman, Rosella, and Yedid.

Mr. Nye asked for his $450,000 back. When the estate declined to return it, he sued the estate and its lawyers, the Manhattan firm of Walter, Conston, Alexander, and Green, which was holding the money in escrow.

A new buyer was found some months later, James Marcus, then of Georgica Road, but he paid $600,000 less than the $4.5 million Mr. Nye had agreed to. Mr. Marcus had the main house demolished and a new one built in its place.

Eventually, the sheds were torn down and the garage legalized, in a January 1995 Zoning Board decision.

Last month, the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court found in favor of Mr. Nye, agreeing with his lawyer that there was a question about whether the subdivision existed, given the missed 1984 deadline.