'As A Matter Of Law, The House Is Haunted': A Halloween Reminder Of A Shockingly Recent New York Appellate Case

Buyer Beware!

1 LaVeta Place via Google Maps

One might think that a published appellate court opinion declaring a house legally haunted would come to us from some backward time when people refused to believe the testimony of a woman and would publically smear them for being victimized by a high-profile man. As it happens, this opinion is from 1991.

Jeffrey M. Stambovsky was a New York City dweller who decided to take the plunge and move slightly upstate to the Village of Nyack. Stambovsky laid down a $32,500 downpayment and agreed to a price of $650,000 for the house. Unfortunately for Stambovsky, no one told him that the house was filled with poltergeists. Which is why you really should hire former Trump administration judicial nominee and full-time ghost hunter Brett Talley before you make a major property purchase.

While the sellers never told Stambovsky about it, the sellers had previously recounted numerous run-ins with supernatural forces, including “Sir George and Lady Margaret,” a “Revolutionary Navy Lieutenant,” and something that would shake the daughter’s bed every morning unless she asked out loud to sleep in. At least the spirits understood a hangover.

Stambovsky tried to back out of the deal, having not been informed about his supposed roommates. And while one could knock Stambovsky for buying into this hokum, the fact that the house was a feature on a walking tour and periodically attracted paranormal wingnuts was a more grounded reason to want out of the deal. The trial court kicked Stambovsky to the curb based on New York’s then iron-clad adherence to caveat emptor.

But the appellate court reversed. Recognizing that the defendants had played up the house’s haunted past in the media, they were estopped from denying it, rendering the house legally haunted in the eyes of the court. While the court found no legal remedy for this nondisclosure, it offered Stambovsky a very groan-worthy out:

While I agree with Supreme Court that the real estate broker, as agent for the seller, is under no duty to disclose to a potential buyer the phantasmal reputation of the premises and that, in his pursuit of a legal remedy for fraudulent misrepresentation against the seller, plaintiff hasn’t a ghost of a chance, I am nevertheless moved by the spirit of equity to allow the buyer to seek rescission of the contract of sale and recovery of his down payment.

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As Judge Rubin notes, caveat emptor is predicated upon the notion that a diligent buyer can and should investigate and identify problems with the property before purchase. But, is a seance really a reasonable pre-purchase expense?

In the interest of avoiding such untenable consequences, the notion that a haunting is a condition which can and should be ascertained upon reasonable inspection of the premises is a hobgoblin which should be exorcised from the body of legal precedent and laid quietly to rest.

And with that, Stambovsky got out of buying New York’s only legally recognized haunted house. Don’t worry about the buyers, they also turned out fine, with people coming out of the woodwork to buy the house just to have their own personal Overlook Hotel on the Hudson River.

Until 2015, Ingrid Michaelson actually lived in the house because apparently being infested with poltergeists is still a step up when you’re from Staten Island. She sold the house for $1.77M and the pictures from that sale are still available on Estately and Trulia in case Ed Whelan needs to do some last minute hypothesizing to defend Dimmesdale’s honor (“I think something happened to Hester Prynne, I just think she’s confused about the facts”).

As long as the ghosts are chill, this is a pretty nice pad.

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The full opinion is available on the next page. Happy Halloween to all!


HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.