TIBURCIO v. GRANT AVE BRONX REALTY CORP (2025)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Naita A. Semaj, J.), entered July 11, 2024, which granted defendant's CPLR 3211(a)(5) motion to dismiss the complaint as barred by the statute of limitations, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiffs commenced this action on or about February 29, 2024, asserting causes of action for, inter alia, conversion, fraud, and breach of contract, challenging their sale of the property to defendant, which took place 10 years prior on March 26, 2014.  According to plaintiffs, the sale was premised on defendant's promise to pay off the property's underlying mortgage, however, defendant never had any intention of fulfilling its promises to effectuate a short sale on plaintiffs' behalf and relieve them of the mortgage.  As a result of defendant's alleged failure to pay off the mortgage, the lender commenced a foreclosure against plaintiffs in 2017.  Supreme Court correctly determined that defendant's alleged failure to pay off the mortgage, resulting in the 2017 foreclosure action, did not qualify as “a series of independent, distinct wrongs” to toll the applicable statutes of limitations under the “continuous wrong doctrine” (Henry v. Bank of Am., 147 A.D.3d 599, 601, 48 N.Y.S.3d 67 [1st Dept. 2017]).  The doctrine is inapplicable where, as here, there is one tortious act complained of because “the cause of action accrues in those cases at the time that the wrongful act first injured plaintiff and it does not change as a result of ‘continuing consequential damages’ ” (id.).

Plaintiffs' cause of action under the newly enacted Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law § 1501(6) is also unavailing, as the statute does not apply retroactively to the sale of the property (see e.g. Marrero v. Crystal Nails, 114 A.D.3d 101, 111, 978 N.Y.S.2d 257 [2d Dept. 2013]) and, on this record, is otherwise inapplicable (see RPAPL 1501[6]).

We have considered plaintiffs' remaining contentions and find them unavailing.