In Trust for Certificate Holders of Merrill Lynch Mtge. Invs., Inc. v. Love Funding Corp., 13 NY3d 190 [2009] the Court of Appeals held that the champerty statute is violated "only if the primary purpose of the purchase or taking by assignment of the thing in action is . . . to commence a suit thereon," and "if a party acquires a debt instrument for the purpose of enforcing it, that is not champerty simply because the party intends to do so by litigation." (Love Funding, 13 NY3d at 200). The Court added that "the champerty statute does not apply when the purpose of an assignment is the collection of a legitimate claim" (id. at 201), and that if a party takes an assignment of a claim where it had a pre-existing interest, the party would not violate the statute when commencing an action to collect damages thereon (id. at 202).