Preliminary Statement
---------------------
TO THE ATTENTION OF THIS COURT
The final Judgement for Foreclosure and Sale that is being
appealed in toto herein, contains a false and misleading
statement which could jeopordize Defendants-Appellants instant
appeal because it implies that this was an uncontested
foreclosure as it contains on the first page the following
critical wording:
"... and stating that more than the legally required
number of days had elapsed since said Defendants were so
served and/or appeared; and that none of the Defendants
had served any answer to said Complaint, nor had their
time to do so been extended..."
That statement is entirely false and not true as Defendants-
Appellants had submitted a timely 63 paragraph answer with 8
affirmative defenses and 2 counterclaims. Defendants-Appellants
had recently submitted to this Court a motion for clarification,
which was denied without prejudice, see page __t. However Plaintiff-
Respondent's sworn affidavit in response to that motion stated
several times that the wording was due to a "de minimus
scriveners error" the second time Plaintiff-Respondent's
attorneys have used that excuse to gain advantage before this
and the Lower Court, as shown in the brief and supported by the
record.
APPEAL IS ABOUT THE ABUSES OF THE LOWER COURT
This appeal should not have been necessary if the Lower
Court had merely followed black letter law of the statutes and
not had changed its original Decision and allowed
Plaintiff-Respondent to submit directly to chambers via fax, an
illegal motion, from one of Plaintiff's legal assistants,
Plaintiff's own version of an "Amended Decision and Order" which
completely changed the major findings of the court's initial
findings. The allowing of the submission which was clearly a
motion submitted by an "legal assistant" of Plainitff-
Respondent that was never legally noticed to
Defendants-Appellants, was well after the 30 day window to file
a notice of appeal or a CPLR 2221 for leave to reargue the
Decision, circumstantially amounted to what had to have been ex
parte communications. Since the "motion" was from a mere legal
assistant who whould obviously never willy nilly fax a Supreme
Court Judge a request to completely change a prior standing
Decision and Order which had become the law of the case.
FORECLOSURE WAS INITIATED ON A FULLY PAID AND SATISFIED MORTGAGE
This was an action brought on by Plaintiff-Respondent Wells
Fargo Bank, N.A. against Defendants-Appellants to foreclose on a
1995 mortgage which had been certified as paid off by Plaintiff-
Respondent that was followed up with a written acknowledgement
that the satisfaction would be duly filed with the County Clerk,
as the documented exhibits in record shows. The Lower Court
initially held this to be a fact when it stated "Defendants
allege the $162,000 [mortgage being foreclosed] was satisfied
and not in default. They are correct."
CONTRACT OF ADHESION WAS CREATED AT CLOSING WITH A CONSOLIDATED
MORTGAGE - THE ONLY LEGALLY SURVIVING MORTGAGE
Part of a what was to have been a simple and traditional
refinancing arrangement, the terms were changed on the very
morning of the closing as to create a "Consolidated Mortgage"
which, as the wording in the underlying Agreement clearly
states, creates an entirely new and surviving mortgage, that was
signed by both parties and witnessed. The Agreement clearly
states: "This means that all the lender's rights in the Property
are combined so that under the law Lender has one mortgage and I
have one loan obligation..." The last minute change, after the
parties had a "meeting of the minds" created a contract of
adhesion. Plaintiff-Respondent never initiated action upon the
Consolidated Mortgage and tried to keep it from the litigation,
and only when challenged by Defendants-Appellants, acknowledged
it claiming it had been "inadvertantly" left out of their
exhibits.
PLAIINTIFF-RESPONDENT DID NOT OWN OR HOLD THE MORTGAGE BEING
FORCLOSED HEREIN UNTIL WELL AFTER INITIATING FORECLOSURE SUIT
Plaintiff-Respondent failed to file the satisfaction, and
instead initiated the underlying suit by serving Defendants-
Appellants with a summons and complaint without its Notice of
Pendency, again was based solely upon the paid off and satisfied
1995 mortgage. Since Defendants-Appellants had full knowledge
that the original $162,000 mortgage had been paid and satisfied,
that the foreclosure action had been initiated upon the
Consolidated Mortgage.
Plaintiff-Respondent repeatedly stated and implied through
its documents and Affidavits that it owned and held actual
possession of the 1995 mortgage, when they took over the
servicing of it in 2001. This mortgage, however, was not
transferred and sold to Plaintiff-Respondent in until 2007, only
well after the initiating and filing of their foreclosure
action, and only after Defendants-Appellants challenged their
actual ownership of the original note and mortgage in various
affidavits. The Lower Court was fully aware of these issues of
the satisfied mortgage and ownership when it issued its first
Decision and Order, which held that the aforementioned mortgage
was in fact paid off and satisfied.
THE LAW OF THE CASE VIOLATED
Plaintiff-Respondent then filed a notice of entry of the
Original Decision, whereupon neither of the parties filed any
notice of appeal or motioned the Lower Court for reargument
within the 30 day window of time, rendering the original
Decision and Order the law of the case.
ILLEGAL MOTION GRANTED BY THE LOWER COURT IN VIOLATION OF
THE LAW OF THE CASE AND STARE DECISIS
Plaintiff-Respondent however, decided weeks later that it
urgently wanted a major change from the initial holdings in the
Original Decision and Order, and so had one of its mere legal
assistants fax directly to Lower Court chambers, a covering
letter along with their own carefully re-worded Amended Decision
and Order for signing. This was in direct violation of black
letter law, as it was clearly a motion intended to disturb the
original Decision and Order and replace it with their own
version. No notice of motion was served upon Defendatns-
Appellants or filed with the Clerk of the Court, no application
to reargue CPLR 2221, nor was the fee to pay for that motion, as
per CPLR 8020(a). Defendants-Appellants were merely mailed a
copy of that faxed letter (without the attached exhibits faxed
to the Court), that arrived days after it was delivered to the
Court Chambers.
In response, Defendants-Appellants immediately faxed their
outrage and challenged the major changes to the holdings from
the Original Decision and Order, and demanded that the Lower
Court reject their "motion" out of hand for Plaintiff-
Respondent's not complying with the proper noticing and filing
of that motion, as well as that Plaintiff-Respondent's "motion"
was untimely as well as illegal. Defendants-Appellants
immediately filed a notice of appeal, which became an
intermediate appeal after the filing of the this instant appeal
on the signed Judgement for Foreclosure and Sale which was
grounded in the Amended Decision and Order.
The Amended Decision and Order was the underlying basis for
the signing of the final Judgement for Foreclosure and Sale
which is the basis of this instant appeal, ab initio.
SUMMARY OF APPENDIX DOCUMENTS CONDENSED AT THE END OF APPENDIX
Defendants-Appellants in an effort to aid the Appellate
Court and simplify matters have repeated and summarized certain
critical documents which appear scattered throughout the
Appendix. These duplicated documents were exhibits presented by
both Defendants- Appellants and Plaintiff-Respondent as various
exhibits in and during litigation. All these Documents were
initially created by Plaintiff-Respondent or their Attorney, and
are not self-serving creations by Defendants-Respondents. They
essentially lie at the core of this Appeal, and make it easy to
understand, the reasons behind this Appeal.
They begin at A - 409 through A - 425 of the Appendix with a
very brief statement of each document of their importance and
its relevance on pages 2 and 3 of this Brief. There are notations
of where they are to be found within the Appendix.
Copyright © 2008 by WebstersWebsites (tm) all rights reserved.