AC45332 - GMAT Legal Title Trust 2014-1, U.S. Bank, National Assn. v. Catale ("This residential mortgage foreclosure action returns to this court for a second time. This time, the defendants Vito Catale (Vito) and Maria Catale appeal from the judgment of strict foreclosure rendered by the trial court in favor of the substitute plaintiff RMS Series Trust 2020-1. They claim that the judgment of strict foreclosure must be reversed because (1) the plaintiff did not 'lay the foundation required to rely on the hearsay evidence of the loan's history provided by the plaintiff's predecessors in interest' and, therefore, the judgment is premised entirely on inadmissible evidence, and (2) the court improperly struck their 'key special defenses,' including, inter alia, their defenses of unclean hands, bad faith settlement practices, and the inapplicability of the accidental failure of suit statute. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the judgment of the trial court only with respect to the granting of the motion to strike the defendants' special defense claiming the inapplicability of the accidental failure of suit statute because that special defense was not ripe for adjudication. We affirm the judgment in all other respects.")