Riker Danzig won priority over the mortgages of another creditor when the Appellate Division reversed a lower court's finding in Rosenthal & Rosenthal Inc. v. Benun and Riker Danzig.
Riker Danzig had appealed from summary judgment granting priority to two earlier recorded mortgages of plaintiff Rosenthal. Arguing before the New Jersey appeals court for Riker Danzig, Firm Chair Gerald Liloia had asserted that the lower court incorrectly applied the common law of optional future advances secured by a mortgage. The Appellate Division agreed and reversed.
In a published decision, the Court found that, by continuing to make additional advances after the Riker Danzig mortgage, Rosenthal failed to protect its interests with regard to subordination, and subjected itself to the application of the common-law rules on priorities.
See New Jersey Law Journal and Law360 for coverage of this significant decision.
