Steve Hyman and his wife, Victoria, have won a legal battle against Jersey City over the validity of tax liens they purchased in 2009. Reena Rose Sibayan | The Jersey Journal
JERSEY CITY -- A state appellate panel has ruled in favor of Steve and Victoria Hyman in a tax-lien case connected to the disputed Sixth Street Embankment, with three judges overturning a lower-court ruling that had been in favor of Jersey City.
The decision, on a case that is a side battle to the embankment war being waged in federal court, "undercuts the city's credibility across the board," according to the Hymans' attorney, Dan Horgan.
"The current decision by a three-judge appellate court that carefully reviewed all of the facts further confirms the city's abuse, waste of money and bad legal judgment," Horgan told The Jersey Journal.
City spokesman Ryan Jacobs said this case is a "very small one" that has no bearing on the ultimate case over who will end up owning the embankment, which the city says it wants to turn into a High Line-style park.
"We have won all the major cases so far, and we're confident that this property will become a park for all of Jersey City," Jacobs said.
MORE: Steve Hyman opens up about embankment fight
Like almost everything related to the embankment case, the case the three appellate judges decided today is labyrinthine.
This clash began in 2009 when the Hymans, who control LLCs that own 14 properties that make up the six-block embankment, stopped paying property taxes on the properties. The city issued tax liens and sold them at public auction to NZ Funding, an LLC controlled by ... Steve and Victoria Hyman.
The Hymans said they bought the liens in case the federal dispute concerning who will end up controlling the embankment ends with the original titles being void, according to today's ruling. Conrail sold the Hymans the embankment in 2005 for $3 million, a sale the city is disputing in the larger case, saying it should have been offered the properties before they were sold.
After the Hymans purchased the tax liens, the city sued, arguing the couple deliberately stopped paying taxes to force a tax lien sale, an action the city said was "akin to perpetrating a fraud upon the court," according to today's 16-page ruling. A lower court decided in favor of the city, a decision overturned by today's development.
The appellate judges ruled that, unlike in a different case cited by the lower court judge, the Hymans readily admitted they scooped up the liens as "a means of hedging their position" in case they lose the larger, federal case.
"Appellants have not misrepresented themselves throughout this entire saga," the ruling says.
The half-mile long embankment, which ends at Marin Boulevard, dates back to the early 1900s, when it was built to carry seven rail lines 27 feet above the street.
Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.