FIVE MILE CAPITAL SPE LLC v. FILLMORE WEST JPM FINANCE SUBSIDIARY (2016)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Eileen Bransten, J.), entered May 28, 2014, dismissing plaintiff's complaint, based on orders, same court and Justice, entered May 16, 2014, which granted defendants' motions to dismiss the complaint in its entirety with prejudice, unanimously affirmed, with costs. Appeals from the orders, unanimously dismissed, without costs, as subsumed in the appeal from the judgment.

The court properly dismissed the complaint in its entirety. The special servicer, defendant GSREA, acted within its authority and discretion, and did not breach its obligations under the pooling and servicing agreement to act in accordance with the accepted servicing standards by executing a series of transactions in which the value of the syndicated loan was written down so that its outstanding balance matched the appraised value of the collateral, and defendant FWF PHOV Equity LLC took over ownership interests of the collateral from the property owner defendants, who were released from liability on the loan. The court correctly found that the transactions here did not implicate the obligations of a special servicer where a loan in default is resolved by providing the lenders a deed in lieu of foreclosure. The allegations that GSREA acted in bad faith, such as by accepting substantial fees and other consideration in connection with executing these transactions, are conclusory and insufficient to state any breach claim, and absent any viable claim of breach by GSREA, plaintiff's remaining causes of actions for a declaration and imposition of a constructive trust, as well as the claims against the other defendants, are without basis.