Another Lawyer Accused of Screwing With Property Deed

Lawsuit: Congers woman duped out of deed to home
The Journal News by James Walsh and Steve Lieberman - March 13, 2009

A 76-year-old Congers woman has accused Monsey attorney Ryan Karben and a New Jersey-based company of misrepresenting a real estate transaction in which she says she lost the deed to her home. The lawsuit filed in federal court in White Plains accuses Karben and a limited liability corporation called High Mountain Sanitation Haverstraw of engaging in a "scheme" to deprive Elizabeth DiGiacomo of a two-bedroom townhouse at 46 Leif Blvd. "She thought she was getting a $40,000 loan and giving back a mortgage," said Wayne Gavioli, a Nanuet attorney representing DiGiacomo, but instead she signed the property deed over to High Mountain Sanitation. Karben said the lawsuit was baseless. "I attended a closing, and that's the extent of my involvement in this," Karben said. "Any conjecture that I did anything improper is utter nonsense." He said that a son of DiGiacomo's attended the closing and appeared to be advising her throughout the transaction.

DiGiacomo needed the loan to pay her son's medical and business debts, Gavioli said. The deed filed at the Rockland County Clerk's Office on Dec. 12 stated that $260,000 was paid for the house, but Gavioli said DiGiacomo got only the $40,000. "My client said Ryan put the document in front of her and told her to sign," said Gavioli, who filed the lawsuit Monday. "She had no idea she was conveying over the property," Gavioli said. "When she later learned that, she almost had a heart attack." The lawsuit was filed under civil provisions of the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. Citizens are allowed to initiate lawsuits using the statute if they believe they can prove they were victimized by a criminal enterprise. Neither Karben nor Gavioli knew the son's name or how to contact him. Gavioli said the son was undergoing treatments for cancer.

Karben would not discuss how he came to represent DiGiacomo, but later stated in an e-mail that "a local businessperson" asked if he would represent a friend's mother at the closing on Nov. 18. In a subsequent interview, Karben wouldn't name that businessperson. "It wouldn't be appropriate to discuss that because there's litigation going on," Karben said. "I'm not going to discuss other people." He said DiGiacomo's lawsuit "is utterly baseless. She reviewed the documents that she signed. She knew she was doing a real estate sale and that was that." Karben said he was not involved in the sale price or any negotiations with High Mountain Sanitation. He said he didn't know anyone connected with High Mountain, and no lawyer represented the company at the closing. By bringing the lawsuit, DiGiacomo sought "to vacate and set aside the deed as (a) false and fraudulent instrument induced by a scheme to deprive (DiGiacomo) of full ownership and title" to the property. DiGiacomo also wants $500,000 from the defendants.

The new owner

Public records did not provide the names of High Mountain Sanitation's principals or attorneys. A telephone call to Meister Abstract of Brooklyn, the title company involved in the transaction, was not returned yesterday. Incorporation records filed with the New York Department of State on June 15 gave the address of High Mountain Sanitation as 892 Belmont Ave., Prospect Park, N.J.

The street, though, does not extend into Prospect Park, and 892 Belmont is the North Haledon, N.J., location of the Puddingstone Group, a real estate business that last year proposed building apartments on the closed Ramapo landfill. Gershon Alexander, a member of the corporation, is a brother of Naomi Streicher, a Pomona real estate broker who had listed the sale of DiGiacomo's home. Streicher said she had been unaware of the deed transfer and had thought that only a lien was being put against the property so DiGiacomo could get the $40,000 loan. "The deal was that she was selling the house and that she'd get a loan until she sold the house," Streicher said. She said the transaction occurred in her office, but she wasn't present and was unaware until months later that the deed had changed hands. Streicher said she received no commission, and she removed the property from Multiple Listing Service on Feb. 12. Alexander said he knew nothing about High Mountain Sanitation Haverstraw or about the real estate transaction with DiGiacomo. He was not at his North Haledon office when a reporter went there yesterday morning, and he did not return messages seeking additional information from him.

She's still in the house

Gavioli said DiGiacomo hasn't moved from the house and while there were no attempts to evict her, she was staying with relatives in Massachusetts. He said she paid the mortgage and common charges until he advised her to stop a month ago. DiGiacomo went to Gavioli in February for advice about Medicare for her husband, Frank, who was in a long-term-care facility, and to have Gavioli represent her when she sold her house. Gavioli said he discovered the transferred deed while researching public records for the $40,000 lien. He said he sent copies of the lawsuit to the U.S. Attorney's Office in White Plains. A spokesman for the office, Herbert Hadad, would not say whether it knew of the lawsuit and would not confirm nor deny a potential investigation.

Karben, a Spring Valley deputy village attorney and special counsel for Suffern's urban renewal project, said he was surprised by DiGiacomo's charges. "I walked in there thinking it was a property sale and left thinking it was a property sale," Karben said. "I was shocked to learn Mrs. DiGiacomo did not think she was transferring title to their property." Karben is a former state assemblyman who resigned abruptly nearly three years ago. Last week, Suffern Mayor John Keegan and Deputy Mayor John Meehan proposed removing Karben and transferring his duties to Village Attorney Terry Rice. They were overruled by Trustees Dagan LaCorte, Patricia Abato and Andrew Haggerty. "My reason was that I'm fully confident the village attorney can take this project into the future," Keegan said, "and in these times we have to look at (eliminating) duplication of services." LaCorte, who's opposing Keegan in a mayoral primary, has seen Karben's continued work on the project as crucial to its success.