JP Morgan Chase Bank, NA v. Levin

• Decision Date: 16 May 2018
• Docket Number: Index No. 337/10,2015–07941
• Citation: 77 N.Y.S.3d 437,161 A.D.3d 966
• Parties: JP MORGAN CHASE BANK, NA, Plaintiff, v. Ofra LEVIN, Appellant, Wells Fargo Bank, NA, etc., Respondent, et al., Defendants.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

161 A.D.3d 966
77 N.Y.S.3d 437

JP MORGAN CHASE BANK, NA, Plaintiff,
v.
Ofra LEVIN, Appellant,

Wells Fargo Bank, NA, etc., Respondent, et al., Defendants.

2015–07941
Index No. 337/10

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.

Submitted—January 18, 2018
May 16, 2018

77 N.Y.S.3d 438

Ofra Levin, North Woodmere, NY, appellant pro se.

Donohue, McGahan, Catalano & Belitsis, Jericho, N.Y. (Erik H. Rosanes of counsel), for respondent.

REINALDO E. RIVERA, J.P., COLLEEN D. DUFFY, BETSY BARROS, ANGELA G. IANNACCI, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

In an action to foreclose a mortgage, the defendant Ofra Levin appeals from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Thomas A. Adams, J.), entered July 24, 2015. The judgment, insofar as appealed from, upon an order of the same court dated March 12, 2015, as amended April 21, 2015, inter alia, granting the cross motion of the defendant Wells Fargo Bank, NA, for summary judgment on its combined fourth affirmative defense, first counterclaim, and first cross claim, declared that the defendant Wells Fargo Bank, NA, as holder of a certain mortgage dated August 14, 2006, in the principal amount of $380,000, has a valid and subsisting first priority mortgage lien against the subject property.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.

In 2010, the plaintiff, JP Morgan Chase Bank, NA (hereinafter JPMorgan), commenced this action to foreclose a mortgage given by the defendant Ofra Levin in February 2006, securing a home equity line of credit in the sum of $200,000. Levin, appearing pro se, answered the complaint. Thereafter, the defendant Wells Fargo Bank, NA (hereinafter Wells Fargo), interposed an amended answer to the complaint. Wells Fargo asserted a combined fourth affirmative defense, first counterclaim, and first cross claim (hereinafter collectively claim) pursuant to RPAPL article 15 to compel the determination of claims to real property, alleging that the mortgage it held in the sum of $380,000, given by Levin in August 2006, was a superior first mortgage lien, as evidenced...