An innocent property owner in New York City is asking the Supreme Court to rein in an out-of-control municipal fine scheme that doesn’t reliably let people know they’re being charged with an offense – and then argues that they’ve lost their ability to dispute it because they didn’t respond to something they didn’t know about.
“Being punished for a violation I did not commit, never receiving notice of the violation, and having the city routinely ignore my pleas to prove my innocence was incredibly frustrating,” explained owner Serafim Katergaris. “What happened to me could happen to any New Yorker, which is why I’m asking the Supreme Court to hear this case.”
It is the Institute for Justice that provided details of the horrifying situation that could threaten many people.
“In 2014, Serafim bought a home in Harlem and the title search came back clean. However, when Serafim went to sell the home in 2021, he learned for the first time that the city had issued him a $1,000 fine in 2015 for failing to submit a boiler inspection report in 2013. He never received the violation in 2015. And he had no way to know about it: Serafim didn’t own the home when the inspection should’ve been done, and by the time he bought the house, the boiler had been removed,” it explained.
“The Department of Buildings (DOB) claimed that it issued Serafim a notice of violation on March 3, 2015, but Serafim never received the notice. By the time he was selling the home in 2021, the violation now showed up the prospective buyers’ title search. Serafim explained the situation to DOB and asked for a waiver, but DOB refused to grant him one. He then requested a hearing with DOB but was ignored. Without any other legal options available, Serafim paid the fine so the sale could move forward, but submitted a letter to DOB explaining that he was paying under protest and that he wanted a refund. DOB refused. It rebuffed him at every turn.”
“New York City’s scheme of issuing unreviewable fines for code violations and giving people no way to appeal in state courts a clear violation of basic due process rights enshrined in the Constitution,” said IJ lawyer Diana Simpson.
“On top of that, the city’s methods for informing owners of these fines are sloppy, leaving many without knowledge of them for years. By then, the city says it is too late to challenge the system in federal court. The city cannot insulate itself from the Constitution.”
William Maurer, another IJ lawyer, said, “In America, you’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but New York’s code enforcement system flips that principle on its head. New Yorkers from all walks of life are issued fines for minor code violations every day, and they deserve a way to be able to contest these fines.”
A federal court ruling in 2024 assumed that the city had mailed the notice, and assumed that it had been received, despite no evidence of either.
The court didn’t acknowledge “evidence that hundreds of people never received their notices for boiler violations that year and that Serafim himself swore he hadn’t received it.”
The IJ noted that the standards in 13 other federal courts are in opposition to this case.
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This post originally appeared on WND News Center.
