Landowners Who Have Been Granted a Variance Are Necessary Parties In an Action Challenging the Variance (CPLR 1001 (b))

The Second Department determined that landowners who were issued a zoning variance were necessary parties in the action challenging the variance. The landowners had not been properly served and Supreme Court went ahead and determined the merits without the landowners in the suit. On appeal the petitioners did not dispute that the landowners were necessary parties, but argued their presence should be excused under the factors in CPLR 1001 (b). The Second Department disagreed, finding that, under the facts, factors 2 through 5 required the landowners to be parties to the action:

A court may excuse the failure to join a necessary party and allow an action to proceed in the interest of justice upon consideration of five factors enumerated in CPLR 1001(b):   (1) whether the petitioner has another remedy if the action is dismissed for nonjoinder, (2) the prejudice that may accrue from nonjoinder to the respondent or to the nonjoined party, (3) whether and by whom prejudice might have been avoided or may in the future be avoided, (4) the feasibility of a protective provision, and (5) whether an effective judgment may be rendered in the absence of the nonjoined party… . Matter of Feder v Town of Islip Zoning Board of Appeals, 2014 NY Slip Op 00998, 2nd Dept 2-13-14