Oparaji v. Citibank, N.A.

44 Misc. 3d 25, 989 N.Y.S.2d 773
CourtAppellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York
DecidedApril 9, 2014
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 44 Misc. 3d 25 (Oparaji v. Citibank, N.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oparaji v. Citibank, N.A., 44 Misc. 3d 25, 989 N.Y.S.2d 773 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

Ordered that the appeal from the order entered May 24, 2012 is dismissed; and it is further, ordered that the order entered July 17, 2012, insofar as appealed from, is reversed, without costs, and the branch of defendant’s motion seeking summary judgment dismissing so much of the complaint as was asserted by plaintiff Maurice Oparaji is denied; and it is further, ordered [27]*27that the appeal from the order entered January 2, 2013 is dismissed as academic.

At the outset we note that, although the notice of appeal purports to be on behalf of both plaintiffs, Maurice Oparaji was without authority to take an appeal on behalf of the plaintiff Ada Oparaji because he is not an attorney admitted to practice law in the State of New York (see Matter of Ontario Hgts. Homeowners Assn. v Town of Oswego Planning Bd., 77 AD3d 1465 [2010]).

An underlying mortgage foreclosure action, commenced against plaintiffs in the Supreme Court, Queens County (index No. 6889/2007), was resolved on January 29, 2008 by a so-ordered stipulation, pursuant to which ABN AMRO Mortgage Group (ABN), the predecessor in interest of defendant herein, agreed to reinstate the mortgage loan of Maurice Oparaji and Ada Oparaji, plaintiffs herein, upon receipt of payment of $23,387.04. Upon such payment, ABN agreed that it would discontinue the foreclosure action and waive late charges, fees and costs, other than reimbursement of ABN’s payment of the subject property’s real estate taxes. Upon reinstatement, ABN would advise credit reporting agencies to remove any negative credit report against the Oparajis. The Oparajis agreed to reimburse ABN, within 30 days of written demand therefor with proof of payment, for the real property taxes it had paid.

In April 2008, plaintiffs commenced this action, seeking to recover $25,000 on each of the following claims: breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, civil theft, negligence, unfair trade and business practice, deceptive and negligent misrepresentation, verbal abuse and harassment, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent failure to provide adequate hiring and training. Thereafter, plaintiffs made various requests and discovery demands, which were the subject of extensive motion practice. On or about August 22, 2011, plaintiffs served a document entitled “supplemental demands for discovery and inspection.” On September 29, 2011, plaintiffs moved to, among other things, compel defendant to comply with their discovery demands. Defendant opposed the motion, and, by order dated November 15, 2011, the Civil Court (Rudolph E. Greco, Jr., J.), while noting that defendant appeared to have complied with plaintiffs’ discovery demands by giving responses to plaintiffs’ supplemental demands, granted plaintiffs’ motion to the extent of giving defendant a further opportunity to comply “to the extent they [sic] wish to amend and/or supplement their [sic] responses.”

[28]*28Thereafter, plaintiffs moved to strike defendant’s answer based upon outstanding discovery, which motion defendant opposed. By order dated May 4, 2012, the Civil Court (Cheree A. Buggs, J.) granted plaintiffs’ motion to the extent of directing defendant, within 15 days of the date the order was served with notice of entry, to provide responses to a specified question in plaintiffs’ demand for a bill of particulars and to three specified questions listed in plaintiffs’ supplemental demand for discovery and inspection. The order directed plaintiffs to serve defendant with a copy of the order with notice of entry within 20 days and provided that defendant’s failure to comply with the order would result in its preclusion from offering any evidence at trial.

On May 11, 2012, defendant moved to, among other things, strike the complaint or preclude plaintiffs from offering evidence at trial, pursuant to CPLR 3126, for plaintiffs’ failure to comply with defendant’s discovery demands, or, in the alternative, to compel disclosure pursuant to CPLR 3124. Plaintiffs opposed the motion. By order dated May 24, 2012, the Civil Court (Cheree A. Buggs, J.) denied the motion “without prejudice” because defendant had failed to demonstrate that it had actually mailed any demands for discovery. Although the affidavits of service for defendant’s discovery demands were annexed to defendant’s motion, the affidavits left blank the date of service of such demands.

By notice of motion dated May 16, 2012, defendant moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, asserting that plaintiffs’ causes of action were without merit and were not substantiated by any evidentiary support. An “affidavit of personal service” annexed to the motion papers indicates that, on May 16, 2012, a copy of the motion papers was served “upon the following at the address indicated below, by personally delivering a copy of the same and leaving it with a person authorized to receive service of legal papers” at: “Maurice and Ada Oparaji [followed by an address].”

In a supporting affidavit, Luke Kramme, one of defendant’s business operations analysts, described the circumstances which had led to the commencement of the foreclosure action against plaintiffs and to the January 29, 2008 stipulation of settlement (described above). Mr. Kramme asserted that, although plaintiffs had paid, pursuant to the stipulation of settlement, the sum of $23,387.04 to reinstate the loan, they had not complied with their stipulated obligation to reimburse ABN, defendant’s predecessor in interest, for the real property taxes ABN had paid, [29]*29notwithstanding ABN’s transmission to them, by overnight mail on April 11, 2008, of copies of two checks sent by ABN to the New York City Department of Finance in April 2007 to cover the real property taxes. Defendant argued that, since plaintiffs had failed to pay the negative escrow balance resulting from their failure to remit payments for the New York City real property taxes, as agreed to in the stipulation, defendant had sought to recover from plaintiffs that outstanding balance by advising them of their default through correspondence and telephone calls, which, plaintiffs erroneously contended, constituted harassment. Plaintiffs had refused to acknowledge the existence of the escrow account and to satisfy the outstanding balance, and continued to remit a lesser amount without satisfying the negative escrow balance, which led to a past-due status.

Plaintiffs submitted an “affidavit in opposition to defendant’s motion for summary judgment and in support of plaintiffs’ cross-motion,” dated May 23, 2012. In addition to opposing defendant’s motion for summary judgment, plaintiffs sought, among other things, partial summary judgment on the issue of liability, and to enforce Judge Buggs’ May 4, 2012 conditional order of preclusion. Plaintiff Maurice Oparaji offered no substantive opposition to defendant’s motion for summary judgment, but raised several procedural objections. He alleged that neither he, his wife, nor any other member of his family had received notice of defendant’s summary judgment motion. Although defense counsel had, one day prior to the return date, sent a copy of the motion to him via email, this was insufficient notice. He further noted that defendant had ignored both Judge Greco’s November 15, 2011 order and Judge Buggs’ May 4, 2012 conditional preclusion order, and that plaintiffs had not received any discovery from defendant pursuant thereto.

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Related

Oparaji v. Citibank, N.A.
Appellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York, 2017

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
44 Misc. 3d 25, 989 N.Y.S.2d 773, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oparaji-v-citibank-na-nyappterm-2014.