7 On Your Side frees grandma's $450K caught up in courts for 15 years

BROOKLYN (WABC) -- A Long Island family was set to receive a six-figure inheritance after selling their great-grandmother's home, but there was a major setback from a Brooklyn court.

The culprit ended up being the clerk's stamp of approval.

Instead of retaining a new attorney, the family asked 7 On Your Side to get on the case.

On Huntington Street in Brooklyn, it was all about family for the Sciabarrasi's.

After many generations, Lucille sold the homestead that she inherited along with her brother and moved to Long Island 15 years ago.

"There's about $450,000 in escrow," Lucille Sciabarrasi said.

Nearly half a million dollars had been held up for a decade and a half.

The house sale was back in 2010, and their money has been stalled in the surrogate court escrow ever since.

"I'm going to be 84, and I thought this would have been put to rest a long time ago," Sciabarrasi said.

When the property was first sold, a judge had to approve how to divvy up the money.

All they've needed was a stamp from the Kings County Clerk.

But year after year, the paperwork kept getting pushed back.

"You can't do this to people. Something that should cost maybe $8,000 to get out of surrogate court should not cost people tens of thousands of dollars. You have to keep starting over from the beginning," Sciabarrasi's daughter Theresa O'Connor said.

"My life savings went, my life insurance went then finally my kids helped me," Sciabarrasi said.

Lucille's children have gone through four different attorneys trying to get the house sale money that their mom is owed.

Her son Sal is battling a rare form of cancer and Teresa's husband died.

They're both single parents and have helped pay the bills to keep their mom's current home out of foreclosure.

"She deserves to just be comfortable in her home and not worry that the garages collapsing, the decks falling down. We called everywhere, the state, and this is our last hope to be honest with you," Sal Sciabarrasi said.

7 On Your Side contacted the clerk's office and asked them to sign off on the final decree. But the Sciabarrasi's were told they'd practically have to start all over again after 15 years.

7 On Your Side looped in the highest court in the state of New York, the Court of Appeals.

"The judge said, we're going to get this done. I want this off my desk. He signed everything and it was done," O'Connor said.

A sigh of relief worth a whopping $450,000, finally free at last, released from the eternal escrow lockdown in 2010.

"All I could say is thank you and thank you for taking away 14 years in two weeks," O'Connor said.

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