New York Court of Appeals
Aurora Loan Services, LLC, Respondent v. Monique Taylor, Also Known as Monique Pujol Taylor, Appellants, Et…
June 11, 201525 N.Y.3d 355
Summary
The Court of Appeals held that Aurora Loan Services had standing to commence its mortgage foreclosure action because it obtained physical possession of the original note, indorsed to the trustee-owner, before filing suit; under New York law the note, not the mortgage, is the dispositive instrument conveying standing, and the mortgage passes as an incident to the note. The Court further held that Aurora's legal liaison's personal-knowledge affidavit attesting that the original note and allonge had been in Aurora's exclusive custody since May 20, 2010 — four days before commencement — sufficed to prove standing on summary judgment, absent any contradicting evidence or demand for production of the original note. Aurora's challenge to the Appellate Division's reversal of the judgment of foreclosure was held not properly before the Court for want of leave to appeal. The order was affirmed insofar as appealed from and the certified question answered in the affirmative.