Opinion
10378 Index 380671/08
11-19-2019
DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR MORGAN STANLEY ABS CAPITAL I INC. TRUST 2007-HE5 MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-HE5, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Percival WILLIAMS, et al., Defendants, Hilda Williams, Defendant-Appellant.
Hilda Williams, appellant pro se. Parker Ibrahim & Berg LLP, New York (Christopher P. Spina of counsel), for respondent.
Hilda Williams, appellant pro se.
Parker Ibrahim & Berg LLP, New York (Christopher P. Spina of counsel), for respondent.
Friedman, J.P., Renwick, Richter, Mazzarelli, Oing, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Doris M. Gonzalez, J.), entered on or about February 26, 2019, which denied defendant Hilda Williams's motion to vacate an order, same court (Wilma Guzman, J.), entered October 19, 2016, upon her default, granting plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and the appointment of a referee, and a judgment of foreclosure and sale, same court (Ben R. Barbato, J.), entered on or about April 11, 2018, unanimously affirmed, without costs. Defendant's motion, brought in January 2019, for vacatur on the ground of newly discovered evidence of fraud or misrepresentation ( CPLR 5015[a][2], [3] ) was properly denied, as defendant submitted no such evidence. The evidence on which she relies, i.e., federal and state agencies' public announcements of their settlements with plaintiff's former counsel's law firm in connection with abuses in its foreclosure-related legal work made in October 2011 and March 2012, could have been timely submitted in opposition to plaintiff's motion for summary judgment (see Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O'Donnell & Weyher v. Valsan, Inc., 226 A.D.2d 102, 103, 640 N.Y.S.2d 72 [1st Dept. 1996] ). Defendant submitted no evidence in support of her contention that the law firm manufactured an assignment of mortgage and backdated it; her assertions in this regard are "bare accusation with no evidentiary proof" (see Wells Fargo Bank N.A. v. Ho–Shing, 168 A.D.3d 126, 131, 92 N.Y.S.3d 194 [1st Dept. 2019] ; Thakur v. Thakur, 49 A.D.3d 861, 855 N.Y.S.2d 183 [2d Dept. 2008] ). Moreover, defendant failed to allege fraud within a reasonable time after the entry of the judgment (see Mark v. Lenfest, 80 A.D.3d 426, 914 N.Y.S.2d 141 [1st Dept. 2011] ; see also Deutsche Bank Natl. Trust Co. v. Lopez, 148 A.D.3d 475, 49 N.Y.S.3d 123 [1st Dept. 2017] ).
We have considered defendant's remaining arguments and find them unavailing.