An East Orange property owner recently won a decades-long court battle that could signal a change in the way tax foreclosures are handled.
In 1994, Lynette Johnson bought a property at 250 Tremont Avenue for $55,000. A year later, the city government wrested the property back after Johnson failed to pay the taxes.
The reason why Johnson became delinquent in the taxes was a perfect storm of misfortunes – she claims that the tax notices were going to the unoccupied East Orange property instead of to her home in Newark. Johnson’s lawyer David Deerson also claimed that Johnson was distracted by her late husband’s fatal illness…