Doesn’t legal precident matter anymore?

According to the Republicans’ 2006, court-approved precedent, the voters and courts of NY no longer have a say in the matter. Hoffman would have to convince the U.S. House to unseat Owens and seat him instead.

If Hoffman fails to timely file his election contest under the Federal Contested Elections Act within 30 days, he will lose.

Second, the election in NY-23 is NOT being contested since Hoffman cut and ran. The ELECTION is NOT OVER yet because all ballots have not even been counted yet.
Election machines in three districts malfunctioned so they had to go to paper ballots. ALL paper ballots and absentee ballots are to begin being counted next Monday, Nov 16. Until then, the election isn’t over. The re-audit of the votes already counted is a standard procedure in any election before they can be certified as being correct by the Election Commission. So Hoffman’s concession automatically allowed Owens to be sworn in as Congressman even though he hasn’t won the election yet.
So there is no bill to pay since no extraordinary measures have been taken yet in this election. If the count is close enough between Hoffman and Owens and Owens is still leading, Hoffman would have to pay for a recount. If Owens is behind, in order to keep from being removed from the Congress he will have to pay for a recount in hopes of gaining back enough votes to remain in Congress.
In no case would there be another election unless Congress itself orders one to be held and then Congress (the American taxpayers) would have to pay for it.
This has happened in the past so it is not impossible although with the General elections now less than 1 year away, by the time they would rule one way or the other the elections will be here so the seat would probably remain vacant since the only way they would want to rule on it is if Owens doesn’t get more votes than Hoffman.