The bank had a default in hand but let the clock run out on a Queens property
A New York appeals court dismissed part of a bank's foreclosure after the lender sat on a default for more than a year.
On August 26, 2026, the Appellate Division, Second Department, ruled that U.S. Bank National Association abandoned its foreclosure claim against Black Plaza Management, LLC, by failing to move for a default judgment within the year the law allows.
The case began in March 2017, when the bank sued over a mortgage on a property in Jackson Heights, Queens. Black Plaza, one of the defendants, never answered and never appeared, except to fight the motions that came later.
New York law sets a firm deadline for that situation. Once a defendant defaults, the plaintiff has one year to take steps toward a judgment. Miss it without a good reason, and the court must dismiss the claim as abandoned. The provision, CPLR 3215(c), is mandatory, not optional.
The bank missed it. It did not move for a default judgment against Black Plaza until December 2019, well after the one-year window had closed. Black Plaza asked a Queens trial court to dismiss the claim as abandoned. In June 2022, the court turned that request down on a technical point - Black Plaza had not proven it served its papers on the other, non-appearing defendants - so the judge never reached the core argument.
The bank went back in September 2022, seeking to revive its bid for a default judgment. Black Plaza again moved to dismiss for abandonment. In March 2023, the trial court denied Black Plaza's motion, and the company appealed.
The four-judge panel sided with Black Plaza. The bank, it found, never showed it had moved toward a default judgment inside the one-year window, and its reasons for the delay did not hold up. The court called those reasons "without merit" or "conclusory and unsubstantiated." With no valid excuse on the table, the judges said they did not need to weigh whether the foreclosure claim itself had any merit.
The panel modified the lower court's order to dismiss the claim against Black Plaza as abandoned, with costs awarded to the company.
For lenders and servicers, the clock in Section 3215(c) starts the moment a defendant defaults. Let it run out, and the right to pursue that claim can go with it.
