Patrick B. Naylon, partner in Goldberg Segalla’s Professional Liability and General Liability Practice Groups, represented a law firm in a successful appeal to the New York Appellate Division, Second Department that reversed a trial court’s award of sanctions against the law firm and the plaintiff bank it represented in a foreclosure action.

On March 20, 2013, the Second Department reversed the decision of the New York Supreme Court, Kings County that had dismissed the foreclosure action with prejudice and ordered a $5,000 sanction against our client. The Second Department took the unusual step of remitting the case back to the trial court for further proceedings before a different justice, ruling that the trial court improperly relied on independently gathered information in dismissing the action.

The New York Law Journal interviewed Patrick when it reported on the decision in “Panel Cautions Judge, Revives Foreclosure Proceeding,” published in the March 23, 2013 edition (subscription required). “The system works,” Patrick told the New York Law Journal. “That’s what an appeals court is for. You have a bad decision and you appeal it. The appeals court is teaching with its decisions, not only the attorneys, but judges as well.”

The case is HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v Taher (2013 NY Slip Op 01806).