Too Late Before You Knew — The Four-Month Window
Cases lost not on the merits but on the clock. A challenge to a board's action must be brought as a CPLR article 78 proceeding within four months of notification (CPLR 217[1]); after that the decision is unreviewable, and it cannot be repleaded as a breach of the governing documents.
NEW YORK
No agency has jurisdiction
Four months. There is no tolling for the time it takes an owner to discover what the board actually did, and no disclosure regime that would deliver that information inside the window.
2 verified cases — 0 against a board, 1 for a board, 1 split, 0 open. No clean finding of liability against a board in this bucket.
What the board is said to have done
Adopted house rules five months after a penthouse sale making that owner responsible for protecting the roof membrane beneath his terrace and indemnifying the cooperative for any damage to it.
No tribunal ever decided this.
Board prevailed
What the board is said to have done
Reduced a shareholder's holding from 500 shares to 250 — two votes to one — and conducted the April 2015 board election on that basis.
No tribunal ever decided this.
Split decision — merits not decided; allegation, not a finding