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Bronx Apartment Buildings Family Feud Nears End After 30 Years
February 13, 2010 by Neil · Leave a Comment
Diana Sakow and Evelyn Breslaw were told that their father, Max Sakow, died a poor man in 1956. In 1983, they discovered that their brother Walter Sakow had hidden their father’s one-page handwritten will in a Bronx courthouse. The will had divided the 100 properties equally among his wife and three children.
Walkter Sakow and his mother conspired to hide this information and the status of ownership from the two sisters. Moreover, when the sisters confronted their brother about this revelation, he called the police…on them.
It took seven years for the case to go to trial in Bronx Surrogate’s Court, and an additional four for Judge Lee Holzman to rule the statute of limitations had expired and the sisters should get nothing.
That decision was reversed on appeal, setting the stage for a second trial that didn’t happen until 2003.
As legal fees mounted, Diana Sakow borrowed against her teacher’s pension, while Breslaw went on food stamps and was threatened with foreclosure.
In the second trial, Breslaw represented the sisters pro se in 2003 because they could no longer afford a lawyer.
The court eventually decided the sisters were entitled to a portion of nine properties, with the other claims thrown out on technical grounds.
Two of the properties were sold in 2005, and most of the money went to legal fees.
Last week, the sisters were granted three of the properties, including a 62-unit apartment building and a gas station.
The judge said it’s possible the case set a record for the highest number of applications over a single estate in the Bronx.
The case can still drag on even longer.
Walter Sakow filed a motion disputing the price of the apartment building.
Hat Tip: NY Daily News
