* § 1984. Decision and judgment of the court. 1. If any party to the
proceeding contests the issue of abandonment, the burden of proving that
the commercial or industrial real property is abandoned shall be upon
the department, and the court shall make a finding based on the facts
before it.

2. (a) Upon application by any party to the proceeding, the court may
order a stay of the proceeding for such time as the court deems proper
to permit the mortgagee or lienor to foreclose its mortgage or lien and
to permit the owner, mortgagor or lienor to enter the property to make
repairs or if the property be vacant to seal or continuously guard the
building as required by law. The court may impose such terms upon the
owner, mortgagee or lienor as it deems proper for the issuance of said
order, including the posting of such security, if any, as it may
require. At the expiration of the period prescribed by the court, the
court may extend the time of the owner, mortgagee or lienor to comply
with the order, dismiss the proceeding if the owner, mortgagee or lienor
has substantially complied with the order, or issue a judgment as
provided in subdivision three of this section, if the court finds that
the owner, mortgagee or lienor has failed to comply with the order.

(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this subdivision, if the
department has brought a proceeding pursuant to section nineteen hundred
eighty-three of this article based on a finding of abandonment pursuant
to paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section nineteen hundred
eighty-one of this chapter, the court may not grant a stay for more than
six months, nor extend it for more than an additional three months.

3. Upon a finding by the court that the commercial or industrial real
property is abandoned, the court shall enter a final judgment in favor
of the petitioner. The fact that an administrator has been appointed as
to the subject property shall not prevent the court from entering a
final judgment in favor of the petitioner upon a finding by the court
that the commercial or industrial real property is abandoned. The final
judgment shall direct such officer of the city, town, or village in
which the commercial or industrial real property is located as may be
designated in the judgment to execute and record a deed conveying title
of the premises to the city, town, or village thirty days after entry of
judgment. Upon the entry of such judgment the city, town, or village
shall be seized of an estate in fee simple absolute in such land and all
persons, including the state of New York, infants, incompetents,
absentees and non-residents who may have had any right, title, interest,
claim, lien or equity of redemption in or upon such lands shall be
barred and forever foreclosed of all such right, title, interest, claim,
lien or equity of redemption.

4. The provisions of section three hundred seventeen of the civil
practice law and rules shall not apply to a proceeding instituted
pursuant to this article. A motion or action to set aside a judgment in
a proceeding instituted pursuant to this article on the grounds either
that there was a failure to comply with the provisions of this article
as to notice or that a defect in the proceeding prejudiced a substantial
right of a party may be instituted within one hundred twenty days after
the deed vesting title in a city has been recorded, but not thereafter.

5. The right, title and interest of a purchaser or incumbrancer of a
property as to which a deed vesting title in a city, town, or village
has been recorded pursuant to a judgment obtained through this article
shall not be affected or impaired by a motion or action instituted more
than one hundred twenty days after such deed vesting title in a city,
town, or village has been recorded.

* NB Repealed June 30, 2025