One of the largest banks in the world is taking Union City to court, claiming that officials have ignored their requests to settle fines on a Palisade Avenue property purchased out of foreclosure because they want the land for themselves.
On May 28, Deutsche Bank filed their complaint against Union City and Mayor Brian Stack in Hudson County Civil Court. The quarrel stems from a house the bank recently purchased through a Sheriff’s sale at 910 Palisade Avenue, which is adjacent to Firefighters Memorial Park, swimming pools, and other amenities.
Since acquiring 910 Palisade Avenue, Deutsche Bank says they have made multiple attempts to resolve outstanding violations and fines in connection with the property. The bank claims they’ve been under contract to sell the parcel to a third party since December of last year, but haven’t gotten any response from Mayor Stack or anybody else at City Hall in terms of settling the violations.
The issue became so problematic that Deutsche Bank says they engaged the services of a management company in connection with the property. That company, which isn’t listed by name in the complaint, shed some light on the issue in an email they allegedly sent to Deutsche.
“What’s going on here is the city has a beautiful park right next-door and this [is a] property that is very valuable,” the email allegedly said. “The neighbor told me he wanted to put in an offer on the house but the city told him not to bother because they won’t be settling with the bank for any violations that they owe on the property.”
Deutsche Bank argues that this email demonstrates Union City does not want the 910 Palisade Avenue property to be sold to anybody but them. The company says they’ve made “significant efforts…to either negotiate a settlement of the approximately $2.5 million in fines or to sell the property to Union City,” but they haven’t responded at all to their requests.
Deutsche Bank claims Union City is tortiously interfering with their business and violating their civil rights, specifically the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees equal protection. Mayor Brian Stack, who is named as an individual defendant in the lawsuit, has not yet responded to our request for comment on the allegations.
