Allenstein and the other defendants never bothered to respond. You’d think that would make things easy for Deutsche Bank, but here’s where the trouble began. The bank just let the case sit there. Meanwhile, in 2012, a company called Contact Holdings bought the property, apparently unaware of the pending foreclosure.
Fast forward to September 2014. Deutsche Bank finally asked the court to enter a default judgment since nobody had answered the complaint. The court said no, pointing out the unreasonable delay. But they gave the bank another shot if it could explain itself and show the case had merit.
Deutsche Bank waited another year before trying again in November 2016. Contact Holdings, now realizing it had a problem, jumped in and asked the court to throw out the whole case for abandonment. The lower court sided with Deutsche Bank initially, but Contact appealed.
In January 2022, the appeals court reversed course and granted Contact’s request. The original foreclosure case was dead, dismissed as abandoned.
Two months later, Deutsche Bank tried to start fresh with a brand new foreclosure action against Contact. Contact fought back immediately, arguing the case was filed too late.