Haunted by Law...

George McDonald

Is your house haunted? According to New York law it could be. 

In July of 1991 the Supreme Court of New York ruled that an 18 room Victorian house in the idyllic village of Nyack was haunted… as a matter of law. 

This ruling was the result of a legal dispute of a real estate deal that had been sabotaged… by ghosts. At least the reputation of ghosts. The prospective home buyer, Jeffery Stambovsky, had attempted to withdraw from a contract with seller Helen Ackley, and recover his down payment as well as damages. 

Ackley had often and publicly declared that the house was haunted, and written so several times in local and national publications. She claimed that multiple phantasmal or ghostly beings inhabited her home alongside the human residents. This story was apparently widely known in Nyack. It was not, however, known to Stambovsky who upon learning the news, after signing a contract of sale, was naturally unsettled. Allegedly he feared the reputation would devalue the property in future resale (though he may just have been scared of ghosts). Stambovsky sought to settle the issue in court

The initial court ruling was against Stambovsky, on the basis of the common law doctrine Caveat Emptor, let the buyer beware, which states that it is the buyers responsibility to check the quality of property before purchasing. 

Stambovsky persisted in his goal to rescind the contract and gain monetary compensation. He appealed to the Supreme Court of New York, who granted that although Caveat Emptor was a legitimate concept, “It should be apparent, however, that the most meticulous inspection and the search would not reveal the presence of [ghosts] at the premises or unearth the property's ghoulish reputation in the community. Therefore, there is no sound policy reason to deny plaintiff relief for failing to discover a state of affairs which the most prudent purchaser would not be expected to even contemplate…”. According to the court, this macabre reputation was created by Ackley, who also failed to notify the buyer of this potentially harmful reputation, thus taking advantage of his ignorance. 

Since the Ghost stories had been created and publicly acknowledged by Ackley, she could not deny the hauntedness of her house, the court ruled. The Appellant Court decided to reinstate the cause of action allowing the buyer to back out of the deal, on the grounds of its haunted reputation, creating the legal existence of a haunted house. In the interest of equity the down payment was returned, but damages were not granted. 

Ironically the publicity of the case turned the house from a local curiosity into a national one. Today it is a profitable tourist attraction, actually increasing the value of the home.

Haunted houses are a legal reality, but readers beware, this weekend, when the doors between this world and the next open, they may become a physical reality. 

Sources

“Caveat Emptor.” Legal Information Institute. Accessed October 31, 2025. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/caveat_emptor. 

Friedman, Sarah. “How a House Becomes Legally Haunted: Stambovsky v. Ackley, the ‘Ghostbuster’ Ruling: In Custodia Legis.” The Library of Congress, October 31, 2024. https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2024/10/how-a-house-becomes-legally-haunted-stambovsky-v-ackley-the-ghostbuster-ruling/. 

“Stambovsky v. Ackley.” Legal Information Institute. Accessed October 31, 2025. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/stambovsky_v._ackley.