Huzhou Chuangtai Rongyuan Investment Management Partnership v. Hui Qin

Background

On July 10, 2025, the Court modified a preliminary injunction to permit Luban Construction, Inc. to sell the residential property at 35 Applegreen Drive, Old Westbury, New York, and place the net sale proceeds into escrow with the Chapter 7 trustee. Luban then asked the Court to vacate the notice of pendency filed by the plaintiffs, insofar as it affected that property, because Luban said the notice prevented it from closing the sale.

Luban initially asked the Court to direct the Nassau County Clerk to cancel the notice under New York Civil Practice Law and Rules § 6514(b). That provision allows a court to direct cancellation when a plaintiff has not commenced or prosecuted the action in good faith. Luban later reported that the plaintiffs’ attorneys had circulated a draft stipulation that could have canceled the notice, although one of the attorneys had not yet appeared in the action.

Parties’ Positions

The plaintiffs’ attorneys stated that the plaintiffs did not object to vacating the notice. They argued, however, that the record did not support a finding that the plaintiffs had failed to act in good faith, and they proposed vacating the notice under New York Civil Practice Law and Rules § 6514(a) instead. Luban also asked the Court to impose the costs and expenses of its motion on the plaintiffs.

The Court credited the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ representations that the plaintiffs had been in regular contact with Luban for weeks, that Luban had said it would file a motion if the matter was not resolved, and that the plaintiffs timely sent a proposed stipulation after Luban had already filed its letter motion.

Ruling

The Court found that the plaintiffs had not failed to act in good faith, so it did not vacate the notice under § 6514(b). Instead, the Court concluded that the notice should be vacated under § 6514(a). For the same reasons, the Court denied Luban’s request to impose motion costs and expenses on the plaintiffs.

The Court ordered that the notice of pendency was vacated insofar as it attached to the property. It directed the Nassau County Clerk, upon payment of proper fees if any, to cancel the notice filed on April 5, 2024, solely as to the property and to note the cancellation on the notice’s record. The Court also directed its clerk to file the order in both listed cases and to terminate the pending motion at docket entry 178 in Case No. 24 Civ. 2219.