One filing in 2009 kept the whole thing on life support
A single procedural filing in 2009 just saved a New York foreclosure that went dark for a decade.
The Appellate Division, Second Department, ruled on September 30, 2026, that Flagstar Bank, FSB can proceed with a mortgage foreclosure it originally filed in December 2008 in Kings County. The court had dismissed the case as abandoned in March 2014. Flagstar did not move to bring it back until January 2024.
The dispute turned on New York's CPLR 3215(c), which says if a plaintiff fails to take steps toward a default judgment within one year of the defendant's default, the court must dismiss the case as abandoned. The statute uses "shall" - mandatory, not optional.
The borrower defaulted by failing to answer the complaint. About three months later, in March 2009, Flagstar filed a request for judicial intervention seeking a residential mortgage foreclosure settlement conference under CPLR 3408.
That was enough.
The appellate court held that filing qualified as a "proceeding" toward judgment, citing prior rulings that such requests "generally constitute proceedings to bring the case to a judgment, thereby negating any intent to abandon the action."
The borrower raised two arguments on appeal. First, that the version of CPLR 3408 in effect in 2008 did not actually require a settlement conference. The court refused to consider that point - it was raised for the first time on appeal.
Second, the borrower argued Flagstar waited too long to move to vacate the 2014 dismissal. The court rejected that too, holding that a motion to vacate and restore a case under CPLR 2221(a) "was not subject to any specific time limitation." And because Flagstar had acted within the one-year window, it owed no excuse for the decade-long gap before coming back.
The panel was unanimous.
For servicers managing aged New York foreclosure portfolios, the signal is practical: a timely request for judicial intervention and a settlement conference can keep a case alive through years of inactivity - and the motion to revive it has no deadline.
The decision is subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.
