Deutsche Bank waited too long to foreclose, New York court rules

By August 2021, the bank was back, filing a new foreclosure on the same mortgage. This time the borrower answered, raising the statute of limitations, the clock that caps how long a lender has to sue. His point was simple: the bank had run out of time. 

The trial court agreed. Leaning on the Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act (FAPA), the 2022 New York law that reshaped foreclosure timing, it denied the bank’s request for summary judgment, a ruling issued without a full trial, and granted the borrower’s cross-motion, ending the case against him. The bank asked for a rethink. In April 2024, the court held its ground. 

On July 29, 2026, the Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed. The bank lost. 

The mechanics matter to anyone running default servicing. For years, lenders relied on CPLR 205(a), which hands a plaintiff six months to refile after a case is dismissed on a technicality, even once the limitations clock has run out. FAPA closed that valve for foreclosures. The court explained the law “replaced the savings provision of CPLR 205(a) with CPLR 205-a in actions upon instruments” like this mortgage, and “specifically defines a dismissal pursuant to CPLR 3215 as a form of neglect that precludes a plaintiff from taking advantage of the six-month savings provision of CPLR 205(a).” 

Put plainly: because the 2011 case died under CPLR 3215(c), the bank could not use the savings rule to stretch its deadline.