Five years after an elderly man was injured in a Yonkers housing accident he is still trying to collect compensation from two New Rochelle businesses that allegedly controlled the apartment house.
Juan Amparo Paulino petitioned Westchester Supreme Court on Oct. 15 to stop DBM Family LP and Forensic Zone Inc. from transferring assets so as to avoid paying him a $185,000 court judgment.
DBM Family LP’s transfer of the apartment house to Forensic Zone Inc. in 2020 “was not an isolated act but part of a broader scheme to defraud [Paulino],” the petition states. “The fact that DBM continued to manage and collect rent … after the transfer demonstrates that the transaction was a mere sham.”
Paulino rented an apartment in a small house on Convent Avenue, in the Monastery Heights neighborhood. In October 2019, as a contractor was renovating the house, Paulino, 86, exited the building and was struck on the head by falling debris.
Though his immediate physical injuries did not appear to be severe, according to court records, a neuropsychologist at St. Joseph’s Medical Center diagnosed severe dementia triggered by a traumatic brain injury.
Paulino sued DBM Family LP for $1.5 million in August 2020. DBM did not respond to the lawsuit, and the court entered a $185,000 default judgment against the company in March 2023.
Now Paulino’s attorney contends that DBM Family LP and Forensic Zone Inc. are avoiding responsibility for the court judgment.
In 2017, Forensic Zone Inc. transferred the Convent Avenue apartment house to DBM Family LP for $0. Then in October 2020 –  after the accident and after Paulino sued DBM Family LP – the apartment house was transferred back to Forensic Zone Inc.
DBM Family LP still manages the apartment house and collects the rents through Forensic, the complaint states, “despite claiming to have divested ownership.”
Both companies, according to the petition, are controlled by Dennis Walsh, who is not named as a defendant in the petition or in the original lawsuit.
Walsh did not reply to emails asking for his business’s side of the story.
Paulino has since moved to another Yonkers apartment building. He is asking the court to cancel the latest property transfer; stop DBM Family LP and Forensic Zone Inc. from transferring or disposing assets; and direct the businesses to turn over their assets to satisfy the $185,000 judgment.
