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Partition—Heirs Act—Decision of First Impression—Judgment of Partition and Sale Vacated—Failure To Comply With Heirs Act—“Right To Purchase At Fair Market Value, As Opposed To Auction, Is a Particular Right Under the Heirs Act”—“Appropriate and Fair Disposition of the Home of Same Sex, Unmarried Couple That Lived Together…For Almost 50 Years”—Defendant’s Attorney “Undisputedly Completely Abandoned Her Defense”—A Traditional Partition Does Not Require a “Fair Market Sale”—Heirs Act Intended To “Protect Individuals Who Hold Real Estate Held As Tenants-In-Common From Predatory Real Estate Speculators”—Heirs Act Applies Even If Post-Commencement, A Party Sells His or Her Interest—An Heir In Possession of a Residence Has a First Right of Refusal—Life Partner Faced “The Forced Sale of Their Family Home Due to the Purchase, At a Nominal Price, Of Distant Relatives’ Interests in the Home by a Property Developer”—Even If the Matter Was Treated as Traditional Partition, Equity Requires Additional Safeguards

Defendant moved for an order pursuant to RPAPL §993: “(1) staying the partition sale of a property…; enjoining plaintiff…from selling, transferring or encumbering the…property; (2) vacating plaintiff’s partial summary judgment of partition and sale order; (3) determining the value of the…property under the Heirs Act; (4) permitting (defendant) as a co-tenant to exercise co-tenant’s buyout option as set forth under the Heirs Act….

The key issue was “whether this action for partition is governed by traditional legal principles of partition or is subject to the special protections and procedures of the relatively new Uniform Partition Heirs Property Act (Heirs Act).”