The following is an Asbury Park Press report:

In April, the state Department of Environmental Protection sent a sternly worded letter to a local rabbi, ordering him to remove thousands of bags of sacred material buried under a sandy lot off Vermont Avenue. The agency called the site “small with inadequate buffers,” whose close proximity to water wells “poses a threat to the usability of these wells.”

DEP officials gave the rabbi 30 days to clean up the site. That window closed Wednesday absent any cleanup, after the DEP backed off the original time frame to find an appropriate solid waste facility. Instead of 30 days, state officials now say another location should be found “soon.”

“We’ve been exercising discretion because of the religious nature of the materials buried,” DEP Spokesman Lawrence Hajna said in an e-mail. “Throughout we’ve tried to be sensitive to the situation, but there will come a point when the materials will have to be moved.”

Yet for neighbors and other people who only see an illegal dump, patience is running thin, especially for the purported owner of the land who was clueless to the burial project.

“I want them to clean it up so I can sell the thing and get out of New Jersey,” said Diane Fitzgerald of Long Island, the daughter of Grace Fitzgerald, who township officials say owns the land. “This is ridiculous what this man gets away with.”

Grace Fitzgerald, 82, has paid taxes on the property since the mid-1980s, paying $403.83 in 2009, according to her tax bill. Unknown to her, the lot was nonetheless sold three times since June 2008, with Yosaif and Zeldy Oppen of Lakewood involved as either the buyers or sellers. On March 1, the Oppens donated the land to the rabbi, Chaim Abadi, who then used it to bury holy items during Passover that, by religious law, could not be burned or discarded as common garbage.

Even more shocking to Fitzgerald was when, on April 15, she received a violation notice from Lakewood ordering her to clean up the dump site. That violation is on hold while Abadi works with DEP officials to resolve the matter.

Repeated calls to Abadi for comment were not returned, though, according to DEP officials, he delayed a cleanup after another rabbi, Shlomo Gissinger, advised him to leave the materials in place. Attempts to reach Gissinger for comment were also unsuccessful.

Who is the rightful owner of the site? That is a truth enmeshed in a tangle of seemingly disjointed deed transfers. However, the ownership lineage, according to a series of wills, appears to end, in part, with Grace Fitzgerald. Her husband, John Fitzgerald, was left a share of the property by his aunt, Anne Rosenfeld, who was left the property by her late husband, David Rosenfeld. When John died in 1989, all his land went to Grace. Other shares went to the children of Anne Rosenfeld’s niece.

The original deed is shared by David Rosenfeld and his father Morris. It is unclear whether Morris’ other son, Saul Field, has any claim to the property.

Oppen, however, claims Anne Rosenfeld never had a right to pass on the property of her late husband, David, because of a provision in an archaic law called Dower and Curtesy, in which, under certain circumstances, a surviving spouse may not be able to sell or convey property of the deceased spouse. David Rosenfeld died in 1979, the same year Dower and Curtesy was abolished in New Jersey.

“Fitzgerald is not the owner, unbeknownst to her — regardless of who’s paying taxes,” Oppen said.

Yet two property law attorneys questioned such an outdated law, especially when measured against the contractual power of a will.
“That was basically done away with,” said Ronald Gasiorowski, an attorney who practices in Red Bank.

Grace Fitzgerald has since hired Gasiorowski as she considers how to pursue legal action, according to her daughter, Diane.
Another attorney, not involved in the dispute, said he “can’t imagine” anyone invoking Dower and Curtesy, having never seen it raised in 15 years of practicing estate law.

“You don’t see it coming up,” said Joel Davies, an attorney who practices in Toms River. “Especially when quitclaim deeds come along because you’re not sure who owns it (the property).”

Quitclaim deeds, of which four were used for the Lakewood property in the past two years, are most typically for transferring property in familial situations such as divorce. While a legally binding change of ownership, they are less reliable than ordinary grant deeds, which contain guarantees from the seller about the title. With quitclaims, someone professed to be the property owner has only to fill out a deed form and a seller’s residence certification form from the state, and file them with the county, according to the Ocean County Clerk’s recording department. Neither the buyer nor the property title needs to be present. It is fraud, however, to misrepresent oneself as the owner, department officials said.

Oppen maintains he was the property’s rightful owner before donating it to Abadi.

“If anyone insinuates any fraud, then that has to be backed up,” he said.

(Source: Asbury Park Press)