New York, NY — Anderson Bowman Wallshein PLLC (“ABW”) applauds today’s unanimous decision by the New York Court of Appeals upholding the Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act (FAPA) in Article 13 LLC v. Ponce De Leon Federal Bank –a ruling that confirms FAPA’s constitutionality and retroactive application to all foreclosure matters where a judgment of sale has not been enforced.
The ruling ends years of uncertainty for thousands of New Yorkers and paves the way for long-awaited justice for homeowners who have been trapped in abusive, manipulated, and sometimes collusive foreclosure litigation for more than a decade.
“The wait is finally over.” — Mark Anderson, Managing Partner
“For some time, our office has been monitoring many cases that depended on this clarification,” said Mark Anderson, Managing Partner at Anderson Bowman Wallshein. “Today, the New York Court of Appeals confirmed that FAPA is constitutional and retroactive. This decision provides important guidance to homeowners and practitioners throughout the state.”
FAPA: A Legislative Response to Issues Identified in Foreclosure Litigation Practices
FAPA was enacted to curb widespread manipulation of the statute of limitations by banks and foreclosure law firms — including tactics such as serial filings, strategic discontinuances, “do-overs,” and attempts to revive actions long after the legal deadline had passed.
ABW has been at the forefront of exposing these patterns, often uncovering:
- Procedural gamesmanship
- Improper acceleration/de-acceleration practices
- Filing strategies designed to extend foreclosure timelines indefinitely
- Coordination between banks and foreclosure mills that deprived homeowners of a fair process
“FAPA is a direct legislative response to the abuses we have documented for years,” Anderson added.
“Banks and their lawyers created a system where mistakes, defects, and even misconduct were weaponized to sidestep the law. FAPA shuts that down.”
But FAPA Alone Is Not Enough
While the Court's decision restores fairness to the statute of limitations in foreclosure cases, Anderson Bowman Wallshein stresses that FAPA is only one safeguard, and more oversight is needed across the entire foreclosure ecosystem.
The firm cites its high-profile class action Bidar v. Eckert Seamans et al., currently pending in New York courts, as a glaring example of the structural vulnerabilities still plaguing the system.
“The Bidar case shows how easily home equity can still be siphoned off through manipulated referee reports, altered sale records, and post-auction misconduct,” Anderson said.
“Even with FAPA, New Yorkers remain vulnerable. We need stronger mechanisms to prevent the kind of impropriety we uncovered in Bidar — and we will continue fighting for those protections.”
A Turning Point in Foreclosure Litigation in New York
Today’s ruling will allow ABW to move forward on a surge of pending matters involving statute-of-limitations questions, surplus proceedings, auction issues, and improper judgment calculations.
“This decision isn’t just a significant development — it’s the result of years of uncertainty finally getting clarity,” according to Anderson.
“Our clients have been waiting. Our communities have been waiting. Today, the law finally caught up to the reality we’ve been exposing.”
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About Anderson Bowman Wallshein PLLC
Anderson Bowman Wallshein PLLC is a New York-based litigation firm dedicated to protecting homeowners, consumers, and communities from foreclosure abuse, illegal interest practices, and systemic misconduct by financial institutions and their agents. The firm leads some of the state’s most significant foreclosure-fraud and class-action litigation, including landmark cases challenging inflated judgments, surplus-fund misappropriation, and structural failures in foreclosure procedure.