N.Y. Real Property Actions & Proceedings Law § 1501: Who may maintain an action

§ 1501. Who may maintain an action. 1. Where a person claims an estate

or interest in real property; or where he claims such estate or interest

as executor or administrator of a deceased person; or where a municipal

corporation has purchased an estate or interest in real property at a

sale conducted by it for unpaid taxes against the property and the time

within which redemption from such sale may be made has expired and such

municipal corporation claims it; such person or municipal corporation,

as the case may be, may maintain an action against any other person,

known or unknown, including one under disability as hereinafter

specified, to compel the determination of any claim adverse to that of

the plaintiff which the defendant makes, or which it appears from the

public records, or from the allegations of the complaint, the defendant

might make; provided, however, that where the estate or interest claimed

by the plaintiff is for a term of years, the action may not be

maintained unless the balance remaining of such term of years is not

less than five.

2. Such action may be maintained, even though the defendant's claim

appears to be invalid on its face, or the court may have to determine

the death of a person, or any statutory limitation of time, or any other

question of fact or law upon which an adjudication of the adverse claims

of the parties may depend.

3. An action against a woman who claims a right of dower in the whole

or a part of the property cannot be commenced until the expiration of

four months after the death of defendant's husband.

4. Where the period allowed by the applicable statute of limitation

for the commencement of an action to foreclose a mortgage, or to enforce

a vendor's lien, has expired, any person having an estate or interest in

the real property subject to such encumbrance may maintain an action

against any other person or persons, known or unknown, including one

under disability as hereinafter specified, to secure the cancellation

and discharge of record of such encumbrance, and to adjudge the estate

or interest of the plaintiff in such real property to be free therefrom;

provided, however, that no such action shall be maintainable in any case

where the mortgagee, holder of the vendor's lien, or the successor of

either of them shall be in possession of the affected real property at

the time of the commencement of the action. In any action brought under

this section it shall be immaterial whether the debt upon which the

mortgage or lien was based has, or has not, been paid; and also whether

the mortgage in question was, or was not, given to secure a part of the

purchase price.

5. The interest had by any mortgagee or contract vendee of real

property or by any successor in interest of either of them, is an

"interest in real property" as that phrase is used in this article of

the real property actions and proceedings law.

6. Where a person, as defined in subdivision seven of section 10.00 of

the penal law, has been convicted of a criminal offense in connection

with a deed theft or fraudulent transaction involving real property, the

conviction creates a rebuttable presumption that such deed transfer was

fraudulent. This section also applies where a grantee of a fraudulent

deed is an entity that is beneficially owned by such convicted person. A

defendant may in such action produce proof to establish by a

preponderance of the evidence that such deed was not procured through

fraud.