The purchaser of property sold by a sheriff pursuant to execution or order may recover the purchase money from the judgment creditors who received the proceeds if the property is recovered from such purchaser in consequence of an irregularity in the sale or a vacatur, reversal or setting aside of the judgment upon which the execution or order was based. If a judgment for the purchase money is so recovered against a judgment creditor in consequence of an irregularity in the sale, such judgment creditor may enforce his judgment as if no levy or sale had been made, and, for that purpose, he may move without notice for an order restoring any lien or priority or amending any docket entry affected by the sale.
§ 5237.Failure of title to property sold.
Article 52. Enforcement of Money Judgments · Last amended 1963 · Last verified July 21, 2026
In one sentenceCPLR 5237 lets a buyer at a sheriff's sale recover the purchase price from the judgment creditors who received the proceeds if the buyer later loses the property because of an irregularity in the sale or because the underlying judgment gets vacated, reversed, or set aside.
Full Text of CPLR 5237
Plain-English Summary
Buying property at a sheriff's sale carries a risk the ordinary real estate market doesn't: the sale rests on a judgment, and judgments can unravel. If a court later vacates, reverses, or sets aside the judgment that supported the execution, or if the sale itself turns out to have been conducted improperly, the buyer can lose the property to the person who had the real claim to it all along. CPLR 5237 gives that buyer a remedy rather than leaving them with nothing: they can recover the purchase money directly from the judgment creditors who received it.
The section also protects the creditor who has to give the money back because of a sale irregularity. That creditor doesn't lose the underlying judgment along with the refunded proceeds; instead, they can enforce it as though no levy or sale had ever taken place, and can move without notice for an order restoring any lien or priority, or amending any docket entry, that the sale had affected. The rule keeps both sides whole: the disappointed buyer gets their money back, and the creditor gets their collection remedy back.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I buy property at a sheriff's sale and later lose title to it?
If the property is taken from you because of an irregularity in the sale, or because the judgment behind the execution was vacated, reversed, or set aside, CPLR 5237 lets you recover the purchase money from the judgment creditors who received the sale proceeds.
Can a judgment creditor be forced to return sale proceeds under CPLR 5237?
Yes, when the buyer's title fails because of a sale irregularity or because the underlying judgment was later vacated, reversed, or set aside, the creditor who received the proceeds can be made to refund the purchase money to the buyer.
What can a judgment creditor do after having to refund purchase money under this section?
If the refund was ordered because of an irregularity in the sale, the creditor can enforce the original judgment as if no levy or sale had ever happened, and can move without notice to restore any lien or priority or to amend any docket entry the sale had affected.
Does CPLR 5237 apply only when the sale itself was defective, or also when the underlying judgment is later reversed?
Both. The section covers two separate triggers: an irregularity in how the sale was conducted, and a later vacatur, reversal, or setting aside of the judgment that supported the execution or order, regardless of whether the sale itself was properly run.
Does a disappointed buyer under CPLR 5237 have to sue the sheriff who conducted the sale?
No. The buyer recovers the purchase money directly from the judgment creditors who received the sale proceeds, not from the sheriff who conducted the sale.
Advisory Committee Notes
The first sentence of this section is derived from CPA § 756. Subd 2 of § 756 was ambiguous since it implied that the section was operative only if the judgment was vacated, reversed or set aside as a result of an irregularity in fact. This ambiguity derived from the apparently inadvertent omission of a comma after the word “irregularity” when the section was transferred to the civil practice act from the Code of Civil Procedure. See Code Civ Proc § 1479. The second sentence of this section is derived from CPA § 757. The new provision, however, requires an order of the court in order that a lien be restored, so that the appropriate docket entry may be made pursuant to § 5019(b).
Amendment History
Formerly § 5236, add, L 1962, ch 308; renumbered § 5240, L 1962, ch 315, § 5, eff Sept 1, 1963.
Source & verification. Provision text, History, and Advisory
Committee Notes are reproduced verbatim from the Consolidated Laws of New York.
Last verified July 21, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: buyer protection sheriff sale New Yorkvacated judgment sheriff sale refundfailure of title execution sale New Yorklost title sheriff auction remedy