The Plaintiff abandoned its plan to sell the second parcel on learning that the County had commenced a tax foreclosure. While a hearing on the Plaintiff’s motion for a deficiency judgment was pending, the second parcel was sold for unpaid taxes. The Supreme Court denied the Plaintiff’s motion and issued an Order holding that the sale of the first parcel fully satisfied the judgment. The lower court’s ruling was affirmed by the Appellate Division, Third Department. According to the Appellate Division,
“[i]f, as claimed by plaintiff, the second parcel were subject to the mortgage liens, plaintiff abandoned the liens on the second parcel by affirmatively electing to allow them to be extinguished by the tax foreclosure proceeding., and plaintiff’s abandonment of the liens on this portion of the collateral precluded it from seeking a deficiency judgment. If the second parcel were not subject to the mortgage liens, then plaintiff’s motion for a deficiency judgment, made more than 90 days after the referee’s deed conveying the first parcel was delivered to the purchaser of that parcel [as required by RPAPL Section 1371[2]], was untimely”.
Unity Bank v. St. John’s Dryden Realty Corp., 2019 NY Slip Op 02597, decided April 4, 2019, is posted at
http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2019/2019_02597.htm.
