Foreclosures—Plaintiff Granted Summary Judgment—Unpaid Real Estate Taxes—Discovery Not Needed—Failure To Show Plaintiff Was In “Exclusive Possession of Facts Which Would Support a Viable Defense”—Facts Unchallenged and Matters of Public Record—Defendants Claimed They Cured Default By Entering Into Forbearance Agreement and They Are Current On Repayment—Equity May Intervene To Prevent Foreclosure Based On “Trivial Or Technical Breach” Or Where “Good Faith Mistake, Promptly Cured By Defaulting Party, and Where There Is No Prejudice to the Creditor”—Court of Appeals “Cautioned Generally Against Interfering With Parties’ Agreements”—Equity Will Prevent Foreclosure Only In “Rare Cases” Involving “Fraud, Exploitive Overreaching Or Unconscionable Conduct By the Mortgagee”—Even If Contract Results In “Objectively ‘Harsh’ Outcome, the ‘Negotiated Term of the Agreement…Must Be Enforced’”—Substantial Taxes Remained Unpaid Notwithstanding Forbearance Agreement—Plaintiff’s Acceleration of the Debt Was Neither Inequitable Nor Unconscionable

This decision involved an action to foreclose on a mortgage which involved an indebtedness of $4,800,000. The plaintiff alleged that the mortgagor had defaulted under the loan documents by failing to pay real estate taxes that accrued between 2021 and 2023. The defendants answered and pled several affirmative defenses. The plaintiff had moved for summary judgment. The plaintiff also moved to strike the defendants’ affirmative defenses.

The plaintiff provided proof of the loan, including an admission in response to a Notice to Admit, an affidavit from a person having personal knowledge of the facts and “other evidence in admissible form.” It was “undisputed that defendants are responsible for paying the real estate taxes.”