Stambovsky v. Ackley
| Stambovsky v. Ackley | |
|---|---|
| New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department | |
|
|
| Decided July 18, 1991 | |
| Full case name | Jeffrey M. Stambovsky v. Helen Ackley and Ellis Realty |
| Citations | 169 A.D.2d 254, 572 N.Y.S.2d 672, 60 USLW 2070 |
| Prior history | New York Supreme Court dismissed the action (April 9, 1990) |
| Main Holding | |
| Seller who had undertaken to inform the public at large about the existence of poltergeists on the premises to be sold was estopped to deny existence of poltergeists on the premises, so the house was haunted as a matter of law and seller must inform the purchaser of the haunting. | |
| Court membership | |
| Presiding Justice | Milonas |
| Associate Justices | Ross, Kassal, Smith, Rubin |
| Case opinion | |
| Decision by | Rubin |
| Joined by | Ross, Kassal |
| Dissent by | Smith, Milonas |
Stambovsky v. Ackley, 169 A.D.2d 254 (N.Y. App. Div. 1991), commonly known as the Ghostbusters ruling, is a case in the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, that held that a house, which the owner had previously advertised to the public as haunted by ghosts, legally was haunted for the purpose of an action for rescission brought by a subsequent purchaser of the house. Because of its unique holding, the case has been frequently printed in textbooks on contracts and property law and widely taught in U.S. law school classes, and is often cited by other courts.
During the course of her ownership of the property at issue, which was located in Nyack, New York, Helen Ackley and members of her family had reported the existence of numerous poltergeists in the house. Ackley had reported the existence of ghosts in the house to both Reader's Digest and a local newspaper on three occasions between 1977 and 1989, when the house was included on a five-home walking tour of the city. She recounted to the press several instances in which the poltergeists interacted directly with members of her family. She claimed that grandchildren received "gifts" of baby rings, all of which suddenly disappeared later. She also claimed that one ghost would wake her daughter, Cynthia each morning by shaking her bed. She claimed that when spring break arrived Cynthia proclaimed loudly that she did not have to wake up early and she would like to sleep in; her bed did not shake the next morning.
Neither Ackley nor her real estate broker, Ellis Realty, revealed the haunting to Jeffrey Stambovsky before he entered a contract to purchase the house in 1989 or 1990. Stambovsky made a $32,500 downpayment on the agreed price of $650,000 for the house. Stambovsky was from New York City and was not aware of the folklore of Nyack, including the widely known haunting story.
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