This article was originally published in the New York law Journal.
by Victor M. Metsch
Anything that can possibly go wrong, does.
-Murphy’s Law
Compulsive readers of advance sheets and decisions reported by the Office of Court Administration are exposed, on practically a daily basis, to the truism that, in mortgage foreclosure proceedings, given the opportunity, something will almost always go wrong.
The often microscopic examination of procedural and substantive claims by the Courts appears to be a result of the unique and complicated technical requirements of the proceeding; the sometimes suspect papers trails resulting from bank failures, regulatory interventions and bulk assignments; and the inability of mortgagees-by-assignment to parlay the necessary original documents with an acceptable chain of title and an affiant with personal knowledge of the facts.
As a result, the Courts now regularly and routinely deny motions for summary judgment in mortgage foreclosure proceedings in situations that, in the past, would have sailed through the civil courts without particularly close scrutiny. A few recent examples follow: Continue reading