| Aurora Loan Servs., LLC v Sookoo |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 51769(U) [24 Misc 3d 1236(A)] |
| Decided on August 14, 2009 |
| Supreme Court, Kings County |
| Schack, J. |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports. |
Aurora Loan Services,
LLC,, Plaintiff,
against Shahmela Shah Sookoo, et. al., Defendants. |
The renewed application of plaintiff AURORA LOAN SERVICES, LLC (AURORA), upon the default of all defendants, for an order of reference for the premises located at 16 Goodwin Place, Brooklyn, New York (Block 3293, Lot 17, County of Kings) is denied and the complaint is dismissed with prejudice for plaintiff's failure to comply with my March 31, 2009 decision and order. The January 10, 2008 notice of pendency filed against the above-named real property by AURORA is cancelled. I ordered on March 31, 2009 that:
leave is granted to plaintiff renew its motion for 16 Goodwin Place, Brooklyn, New York (Block 3293, Lot 17, County
of Kings), within sixty (60) days of this decision and order, provided
that plaintiff, (1) all loan origination documents with respect to the August 1,
2007 mortgage and note between LEHMAN BROTHER BANK, FSB,
as mortgagor, and SHAHMELA SHAH SOOKOO, as mortgagee, for
the premises located at 16 Goodwin Place, Brooklyn, New York (Block
3293, Lot 17, County of Kings), and recorded on August 30, 2007 in
the Office of the City Register of the City of New York, City Register
[*2] File Number (CRFN) 2007000448776; and,
(2) an affidavit or affirmation from counsel for plaintiff, AURORA
LOAN SERVICES, LLC, identifying whether the instant mortgage loan,
pursuant to L 2008, ch 472, § 3-a, is a subprime home loan as defined in
Real Property and Actions Proceedings Law § 1304 or is a high-cost home
loan as defined in Banking Law § 6-l.
Plaintiff AURORA renewed its application for an order of reference on May 26, 2009, 56
days subsequent to my March 31, 2009 order. However, plaintiff AURORA has failed to comply
with my March 31, 2009 order. The order required plaintiff to do two things - (1) provide all
documentation with respect to the August 1, 2007 origination of the instant mortgage loan and
(2) provide the Court with an affirmation identifying whether the instant mortgage loan is a
subprime home loan, as defined in Real Property and Actions Proceedings Law § 1304 or is
a high-cost home loan as defined in Banking Law § 6-l. Plaintiff complied with providing
the Court an affirmation identifying that the instant mortgage loan is not a subprime loan, as
defined in Real Property and Actions Proceedings Law § 1304, or a high-cost home loan, as
defined in Banking Law § 6-l, but plaintiff failed to provide the Court with the ordered loan
origination documents.
Defendant SHAHMELA SHAH SOOKOO (SOOKOO) did not make any payments on the
instant mortgage loan. The instant adjustable rate note demonstrates that defendant SOOKOO
executed a "5-25" adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) loan. According to the August 1, 2007
Adjustable Rate Note, defendant SOOKOO was to initially pay principal and interest of
$3,731.36 per month for the initial five years, at 6.875%. Then, on August 1, 2012, and every six
months thereafter, the interest rate could change on the "change date," based upon an "index"
that is the average of interbank offered rates for the six-month U.S. dollar-denominated deposits
in the London market (LIBOR) as published in the Wall Street Journal. The specific
terms of the SOOKOO Note provided that the new interest rate would be the LIBOR rate plus
2.25%, rounded to the nearest .125%. The interest-rate could increase or decrease up to 2.00%
on each "change date," with the interest rate capped at 12.875%.
In my March 31, 2009 order, I held that:
defendant SOOKOO defaulted in making his or her first mortgage
payment of $3,731.36 on September 1, 2007. The Court is concerned
that defendant SOOKOO's immediate default could be a strong indicator
of either defendant's inability to pay or outright fraud. Therefore, to
determine if this has happened, plaintiff's application for an order of
reference is denied without prejudice for plaintiff to provide the Court
with all documentation used to grant the underlying loan. The Court
will determine if the borrower did not have sufficient income to make
any payments, which could mean that the loan may have been in violation
of federal statutes, or that the entire mortgage event was a fraud.
Plaintiff's counsel asserts, in ¶'s 15 -19 of his affirmation in support of the motion, that
the loan origination documents requested by the Court are provided with the motion. This is
false. None of the loan origination documents are attached to this renewed motion. Plaintiff's
counsel, after asserting, in ¶ 15 of his affirmation, that "[y]our affirmant does not believe
that [*3]examination of the loan origination is pertinent to the
determination of the plaintiff's application," then states that "[n]evertheless, provided herein are
the loan origination documents pertaining to the mortgage that is the subject of this action, as
requested by the court." Further, counsel has the temerity to state, in ¶ 19 of his
affirmation, that "[t]he origination documents provided herein include credit reports, loan
application, driver's license and other personal and confidential documentation" and requests that
"after the court has completed its review, that these documents be returned to this office and not
filed in the County Clerk's office." None of these loan origination documents were provided to
the Court with the motion.
Without the loan origination documents the Court cannot determine if defendant SOOKOO's
immediate default is due to either defendant SOOKOO's inability to pay or outright fraud on the
part of the loan originator LEHMAN BROTHERS BANK, FS (LEHMAN), which filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008. Plaintiff
AURORA was a LEHMAN subsidiary.Further, the Court wonders why AURORA took the
assignment of the instant loan from LEHMAN BROTHERS on December 14, 2007, 105 days
after defendant SOOKOO failed to make the first mortgage loan payment? Also, the December
14, 2007 assignment from MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATIONS SYSTEMS, INC,
(MERS), as nominee for LEHMAN, was executed by Michele Thompson, Vice-President of
MERS, in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. According to the assignment, AURORA is also located in
Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The Court ponders if there was an incestuous and nefarious relationship
between the defunct LEHMAN BROTHERS BANK, FSB and AURORA on the high plains of
Nebraska.
CPLR § 6501 provides that the filing of a notice of pendency against a property
Article 65 of the CPLR outlines notice of pendency procedures. The Court, in Da Silva v
Musso (76 NY2d 436, 442 [1990]), held that "the specific statutorily prescribed
mechanisms for implementing this provisional remedy . . . were designed with a view toward
balancing the interests of the claimant in the preservation of the status quo against the equally
legitimate interests of the property owner in the marketability of his title."
CPLR § 6514 (a) provides for mandatory cancellation of a notice of pendency by:
[t]he court, upon motion of any person aggrieved and upon such
notice as it may require, shall direct any county clerk to cancel a
[*4] notice of pendency, if service of a summons has not been
completed
within the time limited by section 6512; or if the action has been
settled, discontinued or abated; or if the time to appeal from a final
judgment against the plaintiff has expired; or if enforcement of a
final judgment against the plaintiff has not been stayed pursuant to
section 5519. [Emphasis added]
Accordingly, it is
ORDERED that the renewed application of plaintiff AURORA LOAN
[*5] ORDERED, that the instant complaint, Index Number 1043/08, is dismissed with prejudice
because plaintiff ORDERED, that the Notice of Pendency in the instant action, Index Number 1043/08, filed
with the Kings County Clerk on January 10, 2008, by plaintiff, This constitutes the Decision and Order of the Court.
ENTER
___________________________
HON. ARTHUR M. SCHACKJ. S. C.
is to give constructive notice to any purchaser of real property or encumbrancer
against real property of an action that "would affect the title to, or the possession, use or
enjoyment of real property, except in a summary proceeding brought to recover the possession of
real property." "The purpose of the doctrine was to assure that a court retained its ability to effect
justice by preserving its power over the property, regardless of whether a purchaser had any
notice of the pending suit . . . " and, that "the statutory scheme permits a party to effectively
retard the alienability of real property without any prior judicial review." (5303 Realty Corp.
v O & Y Equity Corp. 64 NY2d 313, 319-320 [1984]).
The plain meaning of the word "abated," as used in CPLR § 6514 (a), is the
ending of an action. Abatement is defined (Black's Law Dictionary 3 [7th ed 1999]) as "the act of
eliminating or nullifying." " An action which has been abated is dead, and any further
enforcement of the cause of action requires the bringing of a new action, provided that a cause of
action remains' (2A Carmody-Wait 2d § 11.1)." (Nastasi v Nastasi, 26 AD3d 32, 40 [2d Dept 2005]). Further, the
Nastasi Court, at 36, instructed that "[c]ancellation of a notice of pendency can be
granted in the exercise of the inherent power of the court where its filing fails to comply with
CPLR 6501 (see 5303 Realty Corp. v O & Y Equity Corp. at 320-321; Rose v Montt
Assets, [1st Dept 1998]; Siegel, NY Prac § 336 [4th ed])." Thus, the dismissal of the
instant complaint must result in the mandatory cancellation of plaintiff AURORA's notice of
pendency against the property "in the exercise of the inherent power of the Court."
Therefore, with plaintiff failing to comply with my March 31, 2009 order, the
instant renewed application for an order of reference is denied, the complaint is dismissed with
prejudice, and the notice of pendency against the subject property is cancelled.
Conclusion
SERVICES, LLC, for an order of reference for
the premises located at 16 Goodwin Place, Brooklyn, New York (Block 3293, Lot 17, County of
Kings) is denied; and it is further