STATEN ISLAND SENIORS APPEAL, P.2

Adinolfi says he's making a motion to dismiss the appeal as untimely, since New York State law says an appeal must be filed within 30 days from the service of the court's judgment or order and written notice of its entry – unless a copy of the judgment or order is not served, in which case there are no time limitations on filing an appeal. Adinolfi did not return a follow-up call as to whether the ruling in this case was served. Carrick says simply, "I believe we're timely."

Yet in what seems at least a partial contradiction to her own statements about how "there should be a place where people can meet and talk," Judge McMahon noted "that the ruling here is very, very specific only to these plaintiffs.  …[I]f other people want to come and they think they are going to congregate like you, they are not allowed to do that. I am allowing [the five seniors] to do this because [they] have been doing this for the last 14 years." If other condo owners want to gather, "the board has every right to give them the violations and to tell them that it is not allowed."

In the wake of a federal ruling in November that a Massachusetts condo board had discriminated against unit-owners with children by fining them when their kids played in the outside common areas, it's hard to say what common, everyday things an owner may or may not be prohibited from doing in a common area. But one lesson is clear: Boards shouldn't act in a fit of one member's pique, and should try to come up with reasonable compromises on their own. In the long run, it's cheaper and easier than paying lawyers and having a court do the same thing anyway.

As McMahon said in summing up her decision, "We must all get along with one another and the best thing to do is to respect each other's space."

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Photo by Eileen Tepper