Brooklyn Judge Journeys Through "The Twilight Zone" In Recent Ruling Slamming Standing Lacking Lender, Notorious Foreclosure Mill Law Firm

In Brooklyn, New York, The Wirenius Report Blog reports on Kings County Supreme Court Justice's Arthur M. Schack (a judge which, it points out, has "earned fame just by making banks follow the rules applied to ordinary litigants") and his most recent journey through the "The MERS Mortgage Twilight Zone," and which features notorious Western New York assembly line, foreclosure mill law firm operator, Steven J. Baum, P.C.

One excerpt from his recent court ruling, in which Justice Schack denies, with prejudice, a standing-lacking lender's request to move forward with a foreclosure action, follows (bold text is my emphasis, not in the original text):

• Plaintiff made its renewed motion for an order of reference 204 days late, in violation of the Court's May 2, 2008 decision and order. Moreover, even if the instant motion was timely, the explanations offered by plaintiff's counsel, in his affirmation in support of the instant motion and various documents attached to exhibit F of the instant motion, attempting to cure the four defects explained by the Court in the prior May 2, 2008 decision and order, are so incredible, outrageous, ludicrous and disingenuous that they should have been authored by the late Rod Serling, creator of the famous science-fiction televison series, The Twilight Zone.(1)

• Plaintiff's counsel, Steven J. Baum, P.C., appears to be operating in a parallel mortgage universe, unrelated to the real universe. Rod Serling's opening narration, to episodes in the 1961 - 1962 season of The Twilight Zone (found at www.imdb.com/title/tt0052520/quotes), could have been an introduction to the arguments presented in support of the instant motion by plaintiff's counsel, Steven J. Baum, P.C. - "You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone."

For more, see "The MERS Mortgage Twilight Zone."

For the court ruling, see HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v Yeasmin (aka "Yeasmin II"), 2010 NY Slip Op 50927 (NYS Sup. Ct. Kings County, May 24, 2010).

For "Yeasmin I", see HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v Yeasmin, 19 Misc 3d 1127, 2008 NY Slip Op 50924 (NYS Sup. Ct. Kings County 2008).

Thanks to Catherine Isobe of Bedford Stuyvesant Community Legal Services, Brooklyn, NY for the heads-up on the ruling.

(1) The Twilight Zone was a TV series that ran between 1959 and 1964, and is described by The Internet Movie Database ("IMDb") as (bold text alterations added, not in the original description):

• Rod Serling's seminal anthology series focused on ordinary folks [ie. In the MERS Mortgage Twilight Zone, that would be Justice Schack, other judges presiding over foreclosure actions, homeowners facing foreclosure and their foreclosure defense attorneys] who suddenly found themselves in extraordinary, usually supernatural, situations. The stories would typically end with an ironic twist that would see the guilty punished [ie. standing-lacking lenders, assembly-line foreclosure mill rackets, and the multiple corporate hat-wearing vice presidents that carry out their employers' illicit handiwork].

The "extraordinary, usually supernatural, situations" would be a reference to the creation of the "fictional chains of assignment upon assignment, by entities in which the same people appear as lawyers and principals, agents and employees."