Westbury Village officials' hopes that a public auction last Monday would have finally brought an end to a two-year legal battle involving the Post Avenue movie house were put on hold after two new court actions were issued just before the building went on the auction block. The auction was the result of an October ruling by the Nassau County Supreme Court in which the Village of Westbury was awarded the authority to foreclose on the Post Avenue theater and place the property up for public sale.

The first order, filed with the State Supreme Court in Mineola late Friday, Nov. 7 by FUNDCO - one of the named parties in the suit, claimed that the auction was not properly noticed. "The village names all of the parties that have gotten liens [against the property] over the years. FUNDCO purchased a tax lien and had to be named as a party, which they were," said Village Clerk Tom Savino, adding that miscommunication between FUNDCO and their attorneys caused the action to be put forth. As of press time, the order had been withdrawn.

The second court action enables the theater owners, Rod and Corrine Straehle, themselves to delay the auction. Just prior to the scheduled auction, the theater owners filed for bankruptcy with the United States Bankruptcy Court. "On Monday morning, the Straehles, apparently unaware that [FUNDCO] had held off the auction, filed for bankruptcy," said Savino, adding that FUNDCO has since withdrawn the action. "What they filed is called a Bare Bones Chapter 13, which means they didn't put all their papers in yet," he said. "They still have to fulfill the requirements correctly."

According to George Frooks, an attorney for the Straehles, filing bankruptcy will provide his clients with a chance to start over as well as satisfy the creditors. Although Frooks is not representing the Straehles' bankruptcy proceedings, he stated that his client has filed for Chapter 13, which, if granted by the court, will wipe out everything, except for secured debt. He added that the Straehles will have to "come up with a plan that is acceptable to the bankruptcy judge.

In the meantime, filing for bankruptcy affects the foreclosure judgment granted in the village's favor earlier this year because bankruptcy law is a federal law and it supercedes all pending actions. "When you file for bankruptcy all pending actions are held off until the bankruptcy issue is resolved. If you owe taxes, bankruptcy doesn't get you out of taxes," Savino said. "It is just a matter of us being able to prevail in court on the technical merits. We have to go into court and show that these are all municipal liens that were all accrued through the years and that there is no argument that they are involved. In fact, the state court has already said they are valid."

In addition, Frooks, who is still representing the Straehles in their legal battle against the village, recently filed an Article 78, "contesting the conditions" that the village deemed "unsafe" and in need of repair during a September 2003 hearing. "I am contesting the conditions that the board determined after that meeting," he said. "They are quite improper for a variety of reasons. The village has been basically unfair and that seems to be the sum total of it."

Although seven or eight potential buyers showed up to the auction, Frooks said there would have been a lot more if the referee, who in this case was Savino, had been impartial. "When you have a referee he is supposed to be impartial and he is supposed to conduct a fair auction on the courthouse steps. How impartial can you be if your paycheck is coming from the village?" said Frooks.

"Normally you have conditions of sale, [meaning] if you want to bid, this is what you must do. Several people who wanted to bid called me in frustration because they went to the village clerk and couldn't get the terms and conditions of sale until the very end," he said. "Yes, there were several people there, but how many would have been there if they were provided the necessary information?"

Savino, however, disagrees, stating that, "The procedure is spelled out in the New York State Real Property Tax Law, which states the village clerk/treasurer is designated as referee. Also, the matter was published in The Westbury Times for a significant period of time, four to five consecutive weeks, so there was plenty of notice put out and everyone who made a request was given the information they asked for."

Legal proceedings between the Straehles and the village have been ongoing since 2001 after village officials closed the building, deeming it "unsafe." At that time, the property was being used as a twin movie theater while the Straehles worked to raise the necessary funds to turn the building into a performing arts theater. To date however, just over $11,000 has been raised for the multi-million dollar project. In the meantime, however, the building has remained closed to the public, with state, county, town and school taxes, as well as liens and abatements exceeding $525,000.

As a result, the Nov. 10 public auction would have allowed for the theater and its adjoining property, which occupies an entire block in the heart of the village's downtown, to be sold to the highest bidder. The sale would have also enabled the village to recover all monies owed to them.

"From the village's standpoint, this has got to stop. It's costing the village a lot of money for nothing," said Savino. "All we keep on doing is rearguing and winning the same arguments with different people. It is costing us money to do that and we have to be able to recover that money. The longer it goes, the more money we are going to be seeking to recover."