Merchants National Bank & Trust Co. v. Wagner

93 Misc. 2d 224, 402 N.Y.S.2d 936, 1978 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2040
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 17, 1978
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 93 Misc. 2d 224 (Merchants National Bank & Trust Co. v. Wagner) 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
Merchants National Bank & Trust Co. v. Wagner, 93 Misc. 2d 224, 402 N.Y.S.2d 936, 1978 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2040 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1978).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Thomas Aloi, J.

Defendants Theodore and Rosemary Wagner bring this motion for summary judgment pursuant to CPLR 3212. The action was commenced on February 26, 1977 by Merchants Bank to foreclose a mortgage given by defendants as security for their guarantee of a corporate obligation.

On July 1, 1974, Capello Development Corporation delivered to plaintiff its note for $58,100, secured by a mortgage dated July 15, 1974 on two apartment buildings in Mexico, New York. Theodore Wagner, president of the corporation, and Rosemary Wagner guaranteed the note, which was originally payable in one month. In consideration for extensions of this obligation, the Wagners also guaranteed renewals, securing their note by a mortgage dated December 19, 1974 covering several properties: "the Ruth Road parcel” in Clay, New York; and the Wagners’ residence, a property on Ames Street, and a house and lot adjacent to the apartments, all in Mexico, New York.

On April 21, 1976, plaintiff instituted proceedings to foreclose the Capello mortgage. Pursuant to the extension agreement, plaintiff released its second mortgage on the Ruth Road property, so that it might be sold and the net proceeds be applied .to any deficiency resulting from the then pending foreclosure proceedings, or to another unrelated trust action against the parties herein.

On August 31, 1976, plaintiff was granted a judgment of foreclosure and sale in the amount of $71,779.52. At the foreclosure sale held on October 14, 1976, plaintiff purchased the property and the referee reported a deficiency. Plaintiff later sold the property, applying the proceeds against the outstanding indebtedness, and now wishes to foreclose the guarantors’ mortgage in order to collect the remainder, approximately $23,000.

Defendants move for summary judgment. Plaintiff cross-moves to dismiss the affirmative defenses, and has also brought its own motion to confirm the referee’s report of sale and for leave to enter a deficiency judgment.

[226]*226The Wagners argue that when plaintiff failed, to move for a deficiency judgment after foreclosure and sale on the Capello mortgage, the debt underlying their guarantee was extinguished by operation of law: "If no motion for a deficiency judgment shall be made as herein prescribed the proceeds of the sale regardless of amount shall be deemed to be in full satisfaction of the mortgage debt and no right to recover any deficiency in any action or proceeding shall exist.” (Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law, § 1371, subd 3.) Plaintiff, they argue, no longer has any right to proceed against security given for a debt now conclusively presumed satisfied.

Plaintiff contends that section 1371 of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law is not applicable where the creditor is "merely resorting to the additional security which, under the express terms of the * * * agreement, was to be available for the payment of the debt in the event of a deficiency upon the sale of the premises in the foreclosure action.” (Westerbeke v Bank of Huntington & Trust Co., 272 NY 593, 594, affg 247 App Div 915.) Plaintiff also alleges that even if the court should find the statute does apply to this case, the defendants by separate agreement waived its protection and should not now be permitted to raise it as a defense to the instant foreclosure proceeding.

At common law a creditor could proceed at law and equity simultaneously to collect his debt, foreclosing the mortgage as well as obtaining judgment against the mortgagor. However there is no question but that since the Revised Statutes enacted in 1827-1828, a mortgagee in this State has been required to choose his remedy and to obtain permission of the court before proceeding on a deficiency resulting from either judgment and execution (2 Rev Stat of NY, part III, ch 1, tit 2, §§ 155, 156) or foreclosure and sale (2 Rev Stat of NY, part III, ch 1, tit 2, §§ 153, 154); Scofield v Doscher, 72 NY 491; Jamaica Sav. Bank v M.S. Investing Co., 274 NY 215, 218).

Over the next century, the statute remained relatively unchanged (the Revised Statutes sections became Code Civ Pro, §§ 1627-1630, as amd 1899, 1908, 1911, 1912; then Civ Prac Act, §§ 1077, 1078 and 1083), but some confusion arose as to its applicability where the mortgagor gave some form of security in addition to the bond and mortgage. Even absent a deficiency judgment or leave of court, mortgages were permitted to apply to the debt such property of the mortgagor as [227]*227stocks held in escrow (Westerbeke v Bank of Huntington & Trust Co., supra); funds in an account with the mortgagee bank (Kress v Central Trust Co. of Rochester N. Y., 153 Misc 397, affd 246 App Div 76, affd 272 NY 629); rents and profits in the hands of a receiver (Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v Rosenfield, 153 Misc 218); and to foreclose a separate mortgage on other property (though given partly to secure the same debt as in the main foreclosure action), (Reichert v Stilwell, 172 NY 83).

In the view of this court, plaintiff’s reliance on these decisions is ill-founded, failing as it does to take into account a dramatic shift in the purpose of the statute and a change in the role of the courts in foreclosure proceedings, which occurred as a result of the experiences of the depression. The purpose of the statute in its early forms was merely to relieve the mortgagor of the unfair burden of defending separate actions at law and equity, on the same debt. (Equitable Life Ins. Soc. of U. S. v Stevens, 63 NY 341, 345; Scofield v Doscher, supra, pp 494-495.) "The aim of these statutes (Civ. Prac. Act, §§ 1077 and 1078) is to compel a mortgagee, who elects to foreclose his mortgage, to obtain in the foreclosure action all the relief to which he is entitled’^ (White v Wielandt, 259 App Div 676, 681). However, as a result of the depression, the form of the statute and its underlying policy were radically altered, as the Court of Appeals recognized in refusing to apply section 1083 of the Civil Practice Act retroactively, National City Bank of N. Y. v Gelfert (284 NY 13). (In an opinion by Justice Douglas, however, the United States Supreme Court held that application of section 1083 to mortgage contracts previously made does not violate the contract clause of the United States Constitution [313 US 221].)

When section 1803 was amended in 1938 (L 1938, ch 510) the entering of a deficiency judgment was no longer "a merely clerical act” (National City Bank of N. Y. v Gelfert, supra, p 20). On the contrary, failure to do so now gave rise to a conclusive presumption that the foreclosure sale proceeds "regardless of amount” had fully satisfied the mortgage debt, and a new standard was imposed. Previously, the deficiency had been determined by subtracting the net proceeds of the sale from the judgment of foreclosure (National City Bank of N. Y. v Gelfert, supra, p 20; Matter of Williams, 258 App Div 592). Under the amended section 1083, on a motion for a deficiency judgment, the court must establish and credit the [228]*228debtor with "the fair and reasonable market value of the premises”, and not merely with whatever sum might have been bid at the sale.

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93 Misc. 2d 224, 402 N.Y.S.2d 936, 1978 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2040, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/merchants-national-bank-trust-co-v-wagner-nysupct-1978.