Witness testifies successfully based upon business records

We are pleased to share a recent decision of a case handled by Friedman Vartolo, LLP.  In Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company, Respondent, v. John F. Mares, Appellant, No. 526161 (NY App Div. Nov  1, 2018), the Appellate Division affirmed the Supreme Court’s determination to grant the motion for summary judgment and struck defendant’s answer, counterclaim and affirmative defenses.

The Appellate Court found that the Supreme Court did not err in admitting into evidence the certificate of merit as required by CPLR 3012b (a) with attachments of mortgage, assignment and note with allonges. 

Under the business records exception to the hearsay rule, the sole witness at trial was able to testify from review of the business records of the servicer (without having personal knowledge of the creation of the account records), as well as, to the incorporation the prior servicer records into the current servicer.  Finally, the Court found that the signatures on the on the note endorsements were statutorily presumed to be genuine and authorized, where the appellant speculated as to their authorization to execute the allonges, and produced no evidence to support that they did not have authorization to do so.

A great job by Henry DiStefano of our firm! For more information regarding this case, please contact: Deborah Gallo, Director of Operation at dgallo@friedmanvartolo.com