De Paulis Holding Corp. (DPHC) owned two Staten Island lots -- numbered 17 and 74 -- and when it conveyed one of the lots to the Russos, the deed's metes and bounds description was inaccurate and ended up including the second parcel.
And when that property was later sold to Albert Vitale that conveyance also suffered from the same error.
After DPHC sued to correct the error, the Richmond County Supreme Court denied Vitale's request to dismiss the case.
On appeal, the Appellate Division, Second Department, was of the view the description error rendered the deed "ambiguous," which, in turn, allowed the parties to introduce evidence as to their actual intentions.
Since a trial was needed to resolve the dispute, the appellate court agreed that dismissal of the case wasn't appropriate.
Nothing ambiguous about that.
To view a copy of the Appellate Division's decision, please follow this link: De Paulis Holding Corp. v. Vitale