STRATEGIC REALTY FUND, LLC VS. ALRASHEED WRIGHT (F-000079-18, ESSEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) ( 2020 )

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE
APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court." Although it is posted on the
internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.
SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
APPELLATE DIVISION
DOCKET NO. A-3786-18T1
STRATEGIC REALTY FUND,
LLC,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
ALRASHEED WRIGHT, ESSEX COUNTY
BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES, TAHARIA
J. FONG, MIDLAND FUNDING, LLC, and
NEW CENTURY FINANCIAL SERVICES,
Defendants,
and
CAROL HAYNES,
Defendant-Appellant.
_____________________________________
Submitted March 17, 2020 - Decided March 31, 2020
Before Judges Accurso and Rose.
On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey,
Chancery Division, Essex County, Docket No. F-
000079-18.
Carol Haynes, appellant pro se.
Friedman Vartolo LLP, attorneys for respondent
(Catherine Nicole Aponte, on the brief).
PER CURIAM
Defendant Carol Haynes appeals from the denial of her motion to vacate
a final judgment of foreclosure, contending plaintiff Strategic Realty Fund,
LLC never established its ownership or control of the note she and Alrasheed
Wright gave to First Franklin Financial Corp., an operating subsidiary of
Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust Co., FSB, or the right to foreclose the mortgage
securing it. Because the record reveals Strategic established its standing by an
assignment of mortgage recorded more than two years before it filed its
foreclosure complaint, we affirm. See Deutsche Bank Tr. Co. Ams. v.
Angeles, 428 N.J. Super. 315, 318 (App. Div. 2012).
Defendant and Alrasheed Wright borrowed $204,000 from First Franklin
in June 2007, evidenced by a thirty-year note secured by the purchase money
mortgage they gave to First Franklin's nominee, Mortgage Electronic
Registration Systems, Inc. on their home in Irvington. The mortgage was
eventually assigned to Strategic, which recorded the assignment in Essex
County on September 24, 2015. Two months later, defendant and Mr. Wright
entered into a loan modification agreement with Strategic. The modified loan
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went into default when they failed to make the payment due in December
2016. In August 2017 Strategic sent defendant a notice of intent to foreclose.
It filed its foreclosure complaint four months later, in January 2018.
Defendants did not answer or otherwise contest the foreclosure and final
judgment was entered in favor of Strategic in September 2018. In March
2019, defendant Haynes filed a motion to vacate the judgment alleging
Strategic failed to prove it served a notice of intent to foreclose and failed to
demonstrate its standing to foreclose the mortgage. Judge Orsen denied the
motion. In a comprehensive written opinion detailing the facts and applying
controlling case law, the judge found Strategic established its standing by
virtue of its recorded assignment of mortgage pre-dating the complaint, see
Angeles, 428 N.J. Super. at 318, and the certification of its authorized
representative made on personal knowledge in accordance with Rule 1:6-6, see
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Ford, 418 N.J. Super. 592, 597-600 (App. Div.
2011), that it held the note when it filed its complaint. The judge also found
Strategic likewise demonstrated it timely served its notice of intent to
foreclose by certified and regular mail in August 2017, and that defendant had
failed to rebut any of those facts on the motion.
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No stay of the judgment was sought, and defendant's home was
subsequently sold at sheriff's sale in May 2019 to a third-party bidder.
Defendant moved to vacate the sale, which the court denied finding no
irregularity. See First Tr. Nat'l. Ass'n v. Merola, 319 N.J. Super. 44, 49 (App.
Div. 1999). Defendant appeals from the denial of her motion to vacate the
final judgment, reprising the standing arguments she made to the trial court.
Having considered defendant's arguments and reviewed the record on the
motion, we affirm, substantially for the reasons expressed by Judge Orsen in
his written statement of reasons for the order of April 26, 2019. Because
Strategic had both possession of the note endorsed in blank and a recorded
assignment of mortgage prior to the filing of the complaint, it had standing to
initiate the foreclosure and pursue the complaint to judgment. See Angeles,
428 N.J. Super. at 318.
Affirmed.
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