Actions to be commenced within ten or fifteen years
§ 212. Actions to be commenced within ten or fifteen years. (a) Possession necessary to recover real property. An action to recover real property or its possession cannot be commenced unless the plaintiff, or his predecessor in interest, was seized or possessed of the premises within ten years before the commencement of the action.
(b) Annulment of letters patent. Where letters patent or a grant of real property, issued or made by the state, are declared void on the ground of fraudulent suggestion or concealment, forfeiture, mistake or ignorance of a material fact, wrongful detaining or defective title, an action to recover the premises may be commenced by the state or by a subsequent patentee or grantee, or his successor in interest, within ten years after the determination is made.
(c) To redeem from a mortgage. An action to redeem real property from a mortgage with or without an account of rents and profits may be commenced by the mortgagor or his successors in interest, against the mortgagee in possession, or against the purchaser of the mortgaged premises at a foreclosure sale in an action in which the mortgagor or his successors in interest were not excluded from their interest in the mortgaged premises, or against a successor in interest of either, unless the mortgagee, purchaser or successor was continuously possessed of the premises for ten years after the breach or non-fulfillment of a condition or covenant of the mortgage, or the date of recording of the deed of the premises to the purchaser.
(d) To recover under an affidavit of support of a noncitizen. An action under section one hundred twenty-two of the social services law to recover amounts paid to or on behalf of a noncitizen for whom an affidavit of support pursuant to section 213A of the immigration and naturalization act has been signed.
(e) By a victim of sex trafficking, compelling prostitution, or labor trafficking. An action by a victim of sex trafficking, compelling prostitution, labor trafficking or aggravated labor trafficking, brought pursuant to subdivision (c) of section four hundred eighty-three-bb of the social services law, may be commenced within fifteen years after such victimization occurs provided, however, that such fifteen year period shall not begin to run and shall be tolled during any period in which the victim is or remains subject to such conduct.
(a) Recovering real property — plaintiff (or predecessor) must have been seized/possessed within 10 years (adverse-possession backstop). ★ (b) Annulment of letters patent — 10 years. (c) Redeem from a mortgage — barred if mortgagee possessed continuously for 10 years. (d) Recover under a noncitizen affidavit of support. (e) Sex-trafficking / labor-trafficking victim — 15 years after the victimization, tolled while the victim remains subject to the conduct. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 2 — The JG-22 CPLR and in Volume 1 — The JG-22 in Plain English.