Court’s Sua Sponte Dismissal of Complaint Reversed

The Second Department reversed the trial court’s sua sponte dismissal of plaintiff’s mortgage foreclosure complaint.  The trial court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the plaintiff lacked standing and imposed sanctions based on plaintiff’s alleged reliance upon a “robosigner” (according to the trial court’s own Internet research).  On the issues of “sua sponte” dismissal and standing, the Second Department wrote:

The Supreme Court abused its discretion in, sua sponte, directing dismissal of the complaint with prejudice and cancellation of the notice of pendency … . “A court’s power to dismiss a complaint, sua sponte, is to be used sparingly and only when extraordinary circumstances exist to warrant dismissal” … . Here, the Supreme Court was not presented with any extraordinary circumstances warranting sua sponte dismissal of the complaint. Moreover, as the defendants failed to answer the complaint and did not make pre-answer motions to dismiss the complaint, they waived the defense of lack of standing … . Furthermore, a party’s lack of standing does not constitute a jurisdictional defect and does not warrant sua sponte dismissal of a complaint by the court … .  HSBC Bank USA, NA v Taher, 2013 NY Slip Op 01806, 2011-06455, 2012-00841, Index No 9320/09, 2nd Dept. 3-20-13