Citicorp Mortgage Inc. v. Pessin
Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey
570 A.2d 481 (1990)
Citicorp Mortgage (plaintiff) held the first mortgage on a property; Rudy Grillo held a second, subordinate mortgage, which he assigned to Steven Pessin (defendant), with the assignment recorded just three days before Citicorp filed its foreclosure action (which had actually been dated even earlier, before the assignment). Unaware of Pessin's newly recorded interest, Citicorp did not name him in the foreclosure and commenced a strict foreclosure proceeding to extinguish junior interests; the trial court gave Pessin 60 days to redeem the property by paying Citicorp's debt or lose his equity of redemption, and Pessin appealed.
Whether a party who purchases property at a foreclosure sale in good faith is entitled to force an outstanding junior mortgagee to redeem its mortgage or be foreclosed of the equity of redemption.