| Aurora Loan Servs., LLC v Lopa |
| 2015 NY Slip Op 06303 [130 AD3d 952] |
| July 29, 2015 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
[*1]
| Aurora Loan Services, LLC,Respondent, v Paul Lopa, Appellant, et al., Defendant. (And a Third-PartyAction.) |
Stephen C. Silverberg, PLLC, Uniondale, N.Y., for appellant.
Akerman, LLP, New York, N.Y. (Jordan M. Smith of counsel), for respondent.
In an action to foreclose a mortgage, the defendant Paul Lopa appeals from an orderof the Supreme Court, Richmond County (Fusco, J.), dated August 6, 2013, whichgranted the plaintiff's motion pursuant to CPLR 1018 to substitute nonparty NationstarMortgage, LLC, as the plaintiff, and to amend the caption accordingly.
Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.
"The determination to substitute or join a party pursuant to CPLR 1018 is within thediscretion of the trial court" (NationsCredit Home Equity Servs. v Anderson, 16 AD3d563, 564 [2005]; see GRPLoan, LLC v Taylor, 95 AD3d 1172, 1174 [2012]). In support of its motionpursuant to CPLR 1018 to substitute Nationstar Mortgage, LLC (hereinafter Nationstar),as the plaintiff, and to amend the caption accordingly, the plaintiff submitted evidencedemonstrating that the subject note, indorsed in blank by the lender, was in Nationstar'spossession, and that the mortgage was assigned to Nationstar after the commencement ofthe action, and that Nationstar is therefore now the real plaintiff in interest (see Citibank, N.A. v Van BruntProps., LLC, 95 AD3d 1158, 1160 [2012]; Deutsche Bank Trust Co., Ams. v Stathakis, 90 AD3d 983,983-984 [2011]; cf. NationstarMtge., LLC v Catizone, 127 AD3d 1151 [2015]).
The parties' remaining contentions are without merit.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court providently exercised its direction in granting theplaintiff's motion pursuant to CPLR 1018 to substitute Nationstar as the plaintiff, and toamend the caption accordingly. Mastro, J.P., Leventhal, Roman and Miller, JJ.,concur.