The portion of a putative class action seeking declaratory relief in a challenge to a New York county’s authority to collect tax map verification fees was improperly dismissed, according to a state appellate court.
In an October 25 decision in Cella v. Suffolk County, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, determined that the Suffolk County Supreme Court erred in dismissing Elizabeth Cella’s claim for declaratory relief in her class action suit alleging that Suffolk County’s fees for tax map verifications were illegal unauthorized taxes, because the authority to collect the fees was not expressly delegated to the county by the Legislature.
In 2017 Cella and other plaintiffs filed a class action in the Suffolk County Supreme Court contesting the validity of fees charged by Suffolk County for tax map verifications. The verifications are part of the required process for, among other purposes, recording mortgages. In 2015 and 2016, the fees were increased from $60 to $200, and an additional $300 fee was added for certain documents.
The plaintiffs did not argue that the county could not impose the fees. Instead, Cella asserted that the fees were actually a tax because they are not proportional to the costs incurred as part of filing, and are therefore illegal and unauthorized because they were not enabled by the Legislature. The plaintiffs further requested a refund of fees already paid.
After the plaintiffs moved for summary judgment and the county moved for dismissal, the lower court granted the dismissal, and Cella appealed.
On appeal, the appeals court noted that municipalities are allowed to assess fees without legislative authority so long as the fees are not “charged to generate revenue or offset the cost of other governmental functions” (quoting Matter of Harriman Estates at Aquebogue LLC v. Riverhead).
The appeals court found that the plaintiffs made a prima facie case that the fees were used for...
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