N.Y. Real Property Actions & Proceedings Law § 1301: Separate action for mortgage debt

§ 1301. Separate action for mortgage debt. 1. Where final judgment for

the plaintiff has been rendered in an action to recover any part of the

mortgage debt, an action shall not be commenced or maintained to

foreclose the mortgage, unless an execution against the property of the

defendant has been issued upon the judgment to the sheriff of the county

where he resides, if he resides within the state, or if he resides

without the state, to the sheriff of the county where the judgment-roll

is filed; and has been returned wholly or partly unsatisfied.

2. The complaint shall state whether any other action has been brought

to recover any part of the mortgage debt, and, if so, whether any part

has been collected.

3. While the action is pending or after final judgment for the

plaintiff therein, no other action shall be commenced or maintained to

recover any part of the mortgage debt, including an action to foreclose

the mortgage, without leave of the court in which the former action was

brought. The procurement of such leave shall be a condition precedent to

the commencement of such other action and the failure to procure such

leave shall be a defense to such other action. For purposes of this

subdivision, in the event such other action is commenced without leave

of the court, the former action shall be deemed discontinued upon the

commencement of the other action, unless prior to the entry of a final

judgment in such other action, a defendant raises the failure to comply

with this condition precedent therein, or seeks dismissal thereof based

upon a ground set forth in paragraph four of subdivision (a) of rule

thirty-two hundred eleven of the civil practice law and rules. This

subdivision shall not be treated as a stay or statutory prohibition for

purposes of calculating the time within which an action shall be

commenced and the claim interposed pursuant to sections two hundred four

and two hundred thirteen of the civil practice law and rules.

4. If an action to foreclose a mortgage or recover any part of the

mortgage debt is adjudicated to be barred by the applicable statute of

limitations, any other action seeking to foreclose the mortgage or

recover any part of the same mortgage debt shall also be barred by the

statute of limitations.