Federation Bank & Trust Co. v. Andrew Jackson Apartments, Inc.

168 Misc. 328, 5 N.Y.S.2d 928, 1938 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1757
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMay 11, 1938
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 168 Misc. 328 (Federation Bank & Trust Co. v. Andrew Jackson Apartments, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Federation Bank & Trust Co. v. Andrew Jackson Apartments, Inc., 168 Misc. 328, 5 N.Y.S.2d 928, 1938 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1757 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1938).

Opinion

Hallinan, J.

Motion (1) by the defendant Andrew Jackson Apartments, Inc., for an order dismissing the complaint and discontinuing the action to foreclose, upon the payment by said defendant to the plaintiff, of an installment of principal due January 15, 1938, plus plaintiff’s taxable costs and disbursements; (2) by the plaintiff for summary judgment and an interlocutory judgment of foreclosure.

(1) The mortgage involved was executed and delivered on the 15th of January, 1936. There was a default in the payment of an installment of principal due January 15,1938. The moving defendant relies upon the provisions of section 1077-g of the Civil Practice Act as justification for its motion, claiming that said section applies to a bond and mortgage executed after July 1, 1932. This section is part of the Mortgage Moratorium Act which was enacted under chapter 793 of the Laws of 1933, and added sections 1077-a to 1077-g inclusive, to the Civil Practice Act.

Originally this section merely provided for the duration of the emergency, and listed the class of mortgages not affected by the Mortgage Moratorium Act. It specifically excluded from the provisions of said Act any mortgage dated on or after July first nineteen hundred thirty-two ” or “ any obligations in connection with or secured by any such mortgages.”

By chapter 714 of the Laws of 1937, this section was amended in the following material respects:

[330]*330(A) It excluded from the application of the Moratorium Act not only certain mortgages specified in said section, but also the modification or extension ” of such mortgages.

(B) It excluded from the application of the Moratorium Act “ any installments or amortization of principal, the payment of which is provided for by extension or modification executed on or after July 1, 1937, nor to the mortgages so extended or modified, nor to any obligations in connection with or secured by such mortgages.” In other words, any mortgage executed prior to July 1, 1932, as to which amortization payments are provided by a modification or extension agreement executed on or after July 1, 1937, is not entitled to the benefits of the Mortgage Moratorium Act in the event the owner of the property defaults in the payment of the installments thus agreed upon, and for failure to make such payments the mortgagee has the right to foreclose.

(C) As to the final payment of principal of mortgages so extended or modified (as discussed in Subdivision B ”) the Moratorium Laws do apply if the intermediate installments agreed upon in the extension or modification agreement are paid. The appropriate language of the amendment in this respect is as follows:

Shall apply to the final payment of principal of the mortgages so extended or modified if all installments or amortization the payment of which is provided for by such extension or modification are made as provided for by such extension or modification.”

(D) To afford the property owner who entered into an extension or modification agreement (as discussed in Subdivision “ B ”) an opportunity to comply with such agreement, though he had defaulted in making the amortization payment therein provided for, after an action to foreclose has been commenced for failure to make said payment, the following provision was added in the amendment of section 1077-g:

“ In any action or proceeding for the foreclosure of a mortgage on real property or any interest therein or in any foreclosure under Article seventeen of the Beal Property Law instituted by reason of default in the payment of installment or amortization the payment of which is provided for by such extension or modification, if such action or proceeding has not proceeded to final judgment directing the sale of the mortgaged premises, then such action shall be dismissed and discontinued upon the payment by any defendant to the plaintiff of the taxable costs and disbursements, and the payments of such installment or amortization in default and the remedying of any other default under the terms of such mortgage or extension or modification.”

[331]*331Thus the principal amendment of this section deals with extension or modification agreements executed on or after July 1, 1937, providing for installments of principal or amortization in connection with mortgages originally executed prior to July 1, 1932.

The moving defendant, contends, however, that it was intended by this amendment to give owners of property under foreclosure, no matter when the mortgage was executed, the same relief which is afforded by section 1077-e of the Civil Practice Act in respect to mortgages protected by the Moratorium Laws. It cites as authority for this contention the opening words of the second paragraph of the amended section 1077-g: “ In any action or proceeding for the foreclosure of a mortgage on real property.”

The argument is advanced that the words “ In any action ” are broad and all-embracing, and connote no limitation as to the mortgages to which the provisions thereof are intended to apply.

In this it is mistaken. It has disassociated the introductory clause from the rest of the sentence. No attention is paid to the qualifying phrase which immediately follows, which specifically identifies the mortgages as those upon which foreclosure has been “ instituted by reason of default in the payment of installment or amortization, the payment of which is provided for by such extension or modification.”

Obviously this refers to a mortgage which has been modified or extended, as provided in the preceding part of the amendment, to wit, an extension or modification executed on or after July 1, 1937, which provides for amortization payments. (See discussion under Subdivision “ B ” hereof.)

In the instant case there has been no extension or modification providing for amortization, executed on or after July 1, 1937, or at any time. Here we are dealing with a mortgage which was executed January 15, 1936, as to which the Moratorium Laws can have no application.

The motion of the defendant Andrew Jackson Apartments, Inc. to dismiss the complaint and for a discontinuance of the action, is therefore denied.

(2) Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and an interlocutory judgment of foreclosure, is denied.

This action is based upon the default of the defendant Andrew Jackson Apartments, Inc. in failing to pay the $837.50 installment of principal which was due January 15, 1938, after the lapse of the ten day grace period provided for in the mortgage executed January 15, 1936.

The answer affirmatively pleads the defense of equitable estoppel, in that prior to the due date of the said installment of principal. [332]*332the plaintiff, through one of its officers, led the defendant into the belief that it would not press for immediate payment of the said installment and that it would hold off at least until a requested statement of operations was furnished; that if the defendant had not been so lulled into a false sense of security, it could have made arrangements to make this payment.

I am of opinion that the facts pleaded, if true, constitute a good defense of equitable estoppel.

As said in Thomson v. Poor, 147 N. Y.

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Related

Gettinger v. Storper Realty Co.
183 Misc. 371 (New York Supreme Court, 1944)
Federation Bank & Trust Co. v. Andrew Jackson Apartments, Inc.
255 A.D. 878 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1938)

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Bluebook (online)
168 Misc. 328, 5 N.Y.S.2d 928, 1938 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1757, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/federation-bank-trust-co-v-andrew-jackson-apartments-inc-nysupct-1938.