New York Consolidated Laws, Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law - RPA § 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.