MTGLQ Investors loses bid to revive dormant New York foreclosure
BAC launched the foreclosure in January 2010. The borrower answered pro se. Then in April 2013, BAC submitted affidavits seeking to discontinue the action. Nothing moved for nearly five years.
In January 2018, Ditech filed a fresh foreclosure on the same mortgage – without first getting leave of court on the original case. That move proved fatal.
MTGLQ later acquired the mortgage and, in March 2019, moved to restore the original 2010 action and substitute itself as plaintiff. The lower court granted that request. Four years on, in August 2023, MTGLQ pushed for summary judgment. The borrower cross-moved to vacate the 2019 restoration order and toss the complaint. The lower court said no.
The appellate panel disagreed.
BAC had effectively abandoned the first action through years of inactivity capped by the second foreclosure filing, the court found. The 2018 complaint itself alleged the first action had been “discontinued, otherwise disposed of by the Court, or is in the process of being discontinued.”
