The Plaintiff Board of Managers commenced an Action to foreclose its recorded common charge lien for unpaid common charges in the amount of $16,488.36, accrued interest and attorneys’ fees. During the pendency of the Action, the Defendants paid the common charges and interest. The Plaintiff contended that the lien remained unsatisfied because the Defendants still owed $194,598.23 for repair fees, fines for allegedly violating rules of the Condominium, and for attorneys’ fees, some of which related to a different, unrelated lawsuit. The Supreme Court, New York County, held that the Defendants had satisfied the lien and granted the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the causes of action to foreclose the common charge lien and for breach of contract.

The Court noted that under the Condominium’s Declaration, the right to recover “all costs incurred, including reasonable attorney’s fees” are not a lien against a Unit. Further, according to the Court, the fines and the cost incurred by the Condominium for repairs were not common charges; a common charge lien under Real Property Action Sections 339-z and 339-aa (“Lien for common charges…”) is to only include unpaid common charges. A determination of reasonable attorney fees incurred to recover the common charges was referred to a special referee; it was inappropriate to consider attorney fees incurred in other outstanding litigation. Board of Managers of The Modern 23 Condominium v. Scime, 2017 NY Slip Op 31878, decided August 17, 2017, is posted at

http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/pdfs/2017/2017_31878.pdf.