Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Summary Judgment For Lender Despite Twenty-One Affirmative Defenses Asserted by the Borrower
In Bank of America, N.A. v. Ramkissoon, et al., a contested foreclosure proceeding, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. won a motion for summary judgment and order of reference, in favor of the lender, by sufficiently establishing the lender’s entitlement to judgment as a matter of law and by defeating the twenty-one affirmative defenses asserted in the action by the borrower in his answer.
The subject note and mortgage were assigned to the lender, prior to commencement of the foreclosure action, by endorsement on the note and by assignment of mortgage.
The note and mortgage were then further assigned by the lender during the pendency of the foreclosure action, and Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained to represent the lender’s assignee.
Included among the borrower’s affirmative defenses was a challenge to the lender’s standing to bring the foreclosure action.
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. defeated the borrower’s standing challenge by sufficiently establishing that the note and mortgage were validly assigned to the lender prior to the commencement of the foreclosure action.
Notably, and despite the standing challenge, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. also successfully argued that the lender’s assignee should be permitted to continue the prosecution of the foreclosure action in the name of the original lender, without the need for a formal substitution, pursuant to CPLR § 1018.
Even though all of the borrower’s affirmative defenses were arguably based upon unsupported and conclusory allegations that were insufficient to defeat the lender’s entitlement to summary judgment, instead of relying on this argument alone, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. thoroughly addressed and disproved each of the borrower’s defenses, leaving the court with no legal choice but to find for the lender in granting the motion in its entirety and striking the borrower’s answer, including all twenty-one affirmative defenses.
Jackie Halpern Weinstein and another attorney of the Foreclosure Group at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. won this motion for the Lender.