Flagstar Bank revives New York foreclosure a decade after dismissal
The borrower defaulted by failing to answer the complaint. About three months later, in March 2009, Flagstar filed a request for judicial intervention seeking a residential mortgage foreclosure settlement conference under CPLR 3408.
That was enough.
The appellate court held that filing qualified as a “proceeding” toward judgment, citing prior rulings that such requests “generally constitute proceedings to bring the case to a judgment, thereby negating any intent to abandon the action.”
The borrower raised two arguments on appeal. First, that the version of CPLR 3408 in effect in 2008 did not actually require a settlement conference. The court refused to consider that point – it was raised for the first time on appeal.
Second, the borrower argued Flagstar waited too long to move to vacate the 2014 dismissal. The court rejected that too, holding that a motion to vacate and restore a case under CPLR 2221(a) “was not subject to any specific time limitation.” And because Flagstar had acted within the one-year window, it owed no excuse for the decade-long gap before coming back.
