A diplomat who used to live at a West Harrison estate has sued the current owner for more than $1 million for allegedly refusing to allow him to remove a storage container he left behind more than four years ago.
Daniel Justin Etzin, consul general of the Republic of Seychelles, accused Yadin Rozov of unjust enrichment in a complaint filed on Sept. 30 in Westchester Supreme Court.
Etzin claims that Rozov “purposefully interfered with the ownership and possessory rights” of the container, and of the contents described only as personal property valued at more than $1 million.
But Rozov anticipated the lawsuit nearly three weeks before it was filed by issuing a summons and notice to Etzin, in which he claimed the container was abandoned.
The estate in question is a secluded 7.9-acre property on Orchard Street near Rye Lake, with a 12,000-square-foot main house and a 1,300-square-foot beach cottage overlooking a quarry lake. The Zillow online real estate marketplace estimates it is worth $2.7 million.
The Consul General of the Government of the Republic of the Seychelles – a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean, east of Kenya – bought the property in 2016 for $2,221,875, according to the deed. In December 2020 the consul general sold it to Rozov’s HTR Old Quarry Lake LLC for $2,075,000.
The 2020 sales contract includes a clause stating that a container of personal property was permitted to remain on the site free of charge until the seller (Etzin) removed it by March 31, 2021. They agreed that HTR Old Quarry bore no responsibility for the safety, security or condition of the container and its contents.
Now Etzin claims that Rozov never demanded that the container be removed and agreed to keep it on the property until April 2025. When Etzin demanded access to the property this past April, Rozov refused to allow the removal.
He argues that Rozov had a duty to keep the container and personal property in good condition and he believes that Rozov “invaded the container and removed the contents.”
Rozov states in the Sept. 11 notice that Etzin abandoned the container when he failed to retrieve it by the March 31, 2021 deadline.
Then this past March, “more than four years after the retrieval date,” Etzin and “no less than four different attorneys suddenly reappeared and demanded that he be permitted access to the property to retrieve the container.” Etzin allegedly demanded assurances about the condition of the container and contents and threatened to hold Rozov liable for any damages.
“Given the repeated and baseless threats to sue,” Rozov says, he asked Etzin to sign a general release to mirror language in the 2020 property sales contract. Etzin allegedly refused and continued to threaten litigation.
Rozov is asking the court to declare that he has no liability to Etzin for the condition of the container and its contents. And he is demanding $53,000 for storing the container free of charge for 53 months after the March 2021 retrieval date.
He also questioned Etzin’s bona fides. He says the Seychelles Consulate website, for example, fails to identify him as consul general, instead, referring to him as a businessman who is a diplomat for the United Nations engaged in promoting tourism and foreign investment in the Seychelles.
“It is plain that the contents of the container are his own personal property,” Rozov says, “and have nothing to do with any diplomatic endeavors in which he claims to be engaged.”
