Grill and Schieber Obtain A Significant Victory For Borrower

In a decision that is a significant victory for the client, the Supreme Court, Nassau County canceled and invalidated a multi-million dollar mortgage given by our client to a bank.  The mortgage was discharged despite the fact that our client was concededly in default having failed to pay any amount due the bank since 2007.  In fact, as the Court noted, the bank had commenced prior foreclosure actions in 2008 and 2009, which had only been discontinued on technical grounds in 2012. Nonetheless, we persuaded the Court that, on these facts, the relevant 6 year statute of limitations accrued in 2007 when the bank accelerated the entire debt as part of its 2008 foreclosure action.  More importantly, the Court rejected the lender’s argument that our client had extended the statute of limitations by repeatedly reaffirming the debt in her attempts to settle the foreclosure action through a short-sale of her home.  The Court adopted and credited our argument that our client’s conditional offers of settlement were not sufficient to re-start or extend the statute of limitations.  This decision has far reaching implications for lenders who do not diligently pursue a borrower who is in default.

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