New York Appellate Division, Second Dept.
Defendant Waives Personal Jurisdiction In Foreclosure Action By Agreeing to Settle A Deficiency Judgment Via Email.  Lender brought an action to foreclose a mortgage and purportedly obtained personal service on the defendant.  Defendant failed to appear and lender obtained a default judgment, took the property at the sale and later sold to a third party.  Lender also obtained a deficiency judgment, but defendant, facing other foreclosures with lender, sought to settle the deficiency judgment through a series of email exchanges with the foreclosing attorney.  Defendant agreed to pay a lesser amount while lender agreed to not proceed in the other foreclosures.  Thereafter, more than three years after the judgment of sale, defendant sought to set aside the judgment, the sale and the settlement agreement.  Defendant obtained a hearing and the Supreme Court, Kings County, set aside the judgment, sale and settlement agreement after discovering improprieties in the process server’s proofs.  The Second Dept. could not disagree with the Supreme Court on service, but the Court stated that the defendant submitted to its jurisdiction by engaging the lender in an agreement, albeit via email, to settle the deficiency judgment and remitting payment according thereto.  The dissent maintained that CPLR 2104 requires a stipulation to be “of record”.   The majority responded – “Contrary to the position of our dissenting colleague, a formal stipulation of settlement need not be contained in the record.”  Eastern Sav. Bank, FSB v Campbell, 2018 NY Slip Op 08465, Appellate Division, Second Department, December 12, 2018   opinion