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Quick AnswerIn 2025, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Kings County, dismissed with prejudice a second foreclosure that a bank acting as trustee brought on the same Brooklyn mortgage, after its first foreclosure had gone to trial and been dismissed. The Court held that "the prior action served as an acceleration and the instant case was not timely filed," canceled and discharged the mortgage, and ordered the bank to pay $21,208.85 in attorney fees and costs to Petroff Amshen's clients.
Our clients own a property in Brooklyn. A bank acting as trustee holds a mortgage on it, and that bank had already tried to foreclose once. The first case went to trial, and it was dismissed.
Years later the bank filed again on the same mortgage. Its position was that the first lawsuit did not count, so the deadline to foreclose had never started running. It asked the Court for summary judgment and an order of reference, the step that appoints a referee and moves a foreclosure toward a sale.
New York gives a lender six years to foreclose once the whole loan has been called due. That deadline comes from CPLR 213(4). Filing a foreclosure that demands the full balance is one way a lender calls the loan due, and the six years run from there.
When the six years run out, the lender loses the right to foreclose. New York then lets the owner ask the court to cancel the mortgage itself, under RPAPL 1501(4). That is what our clients asked for here.
We moved for summary judgment, asking the Court to decide the case on the papers and throw out the bank's complaint. We also asked for judgment on our clients' own claims, one to clear the mortgage from their title and one for their legal fees.
The Court looked at how the first case ended. The judge in that case did not make a finding that the bank lacked standing or that it failed to send the notice required before calling the loan due. Without a finding like that, the first lawsuit counted. In the Court's words, "the prior action served as an acceleration and the instant case was not timely filed."
Once the deadline had passed, the mortgage could no longer be enforced. "As the statute of limitations has passed on the lien," it is "unenforceable," and our clients got judgment on their claim to clear the title. Their mortgage let the lender recover its attorneys' fees, and under RPL 282 the Court held our clients were entitled to reasonable fees "as the prevailing parties."
The Court granted our motion and denied the bank's in 2025, then signed a judgment that:
New York gives a lender six years to foreclose once it calls the whole loan due. The Court held the first lawsuit did that.
The record, in order: what the law gives a lender, what the bank argued, and what the Court held.
Under CPLR 213(4) a lender has six years to foreclose once it calls the whole loan due. Filing a foreclosure that demands the full balance does exactly that.
The bank argued its first lawsuit did not count. The Court held it did, because the earlier judge made no finding that would undo it. The six years ran from the first case.
RPAPL 1501(4) lets an owner cancel a mortgage once the time to foreclose has run out. The Court found the lien unenforceable and canceled the mortgage.
Real Property Law 282 gives a homeowner who successfully defends a foreclosure the same right to reasonable attorney fees that the mortgage gives the lender. The Court awarded $21,208.85.
If a bank sued you once, lost, and is now back on the same loan, the dates may decide the case. The first lawsuit may have started a clock that has already run out.
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