When a borrower defaults under a mortgage loan, in order to pursue collection of the entire debt (or foreclose on such basis) a lender must properly accelerate the loan, with such acceleration serving to trigger a six-year statute of limitations for lender to commence an action to foreclose the related mortgage. A recent decision issued by New York's Court of Appeals, Freedom Mortgage Corporation v. Engel (37 N.Y.3d 1, 2021), which is being heralded as a landmark case, clarifies the status of the law relating to acceleration and the statute of limitations in several respects, which this article will describe.