A Notice of Pendency Does Not Convey an Interest in Land

It is axiomatic that the purpose of filing a notice of pendency (the “N/P”) under C.P.L.R. ' 6501 in an action seeking to affect an interest in real property is to render unnecessary the joining as defendants those whose interests are later obtained from a defendant named in the N/P and those whose interests are recorded subsequent to the filing of the N/P. The latter serves “to prevent the acquisition of an interest in the [realty which is the] subject matter of the suit '” e.g., Nomura Home Equity Loan Inc. v. Vacchio, 21 Misc. 3d 333, 336, 334 (Sup., Nass. Co. 2008). The N/P protects a pre-existing interest, but does not give to the filer an interest in the realty. Filing a N/P is not a substitute for recording. A number of reported decisions thus have highlighted the proposition that unless the filer already has a superior interest in the subject real estate, the filed N/P provides no protection to the filer against any other claimant to the land who records a document conveying an interest in the real property to that purchaser (such as a deed or a contract to purchase the subject realty). This is so even if the recordation of the instrument conveying an interest in the realty occurs subsequent to the filing of the N/P, so long as the conveyee took the instrument for value and without notice of the filer's claim.