Justifiable Reliance on Appraisal Report Not Established on Summary Judgment

In my last post, I reviewed two Appellate Division, Second Department decisions rendered on the same day that came out with different results as to whether fraud claims should be summarily dismissed based upon the lack of justifiable reliance. I discuss here a recent Second Department decision (Citibank, N.A. v Potente, 2022 NY Slip Op 06464 (2d Dep’t Decided Nov. 16, 2022)) that in my view was an easy one to call: A mortgagor attempted to ward off a mortgage foreclosure action by claiming it was fraudulently induced to give the mortgage based upon what it alleged was an inflated appraisal of the mortgaged property provided to it by the mortgage lender. The lower court denied the mortgagor summary judgment in its effort to avoid the mortgage, and the Second Department affirmed.

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