Banner Bank v. Smith

Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided June 1, 2026·No. 25-4030·Unpublished

Opinion

FILED

United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT June 1, 2026

Christopher M. Wolpert

Clerk of Court

BANNER BANK, successor by merger of AmericanWest Bank which formerly did business in Utah as Far West Bank,

Plaintiff Counterclaim Defendant -

Appellant,

v. No. 25-4030 (D.C. No. 2:12-CV-00763-CW)

JAMES M. SMITH, a Utah resident; (D. Utah) LOREE C. SMITH, an individual,

Defendants Counterclaim Plaintiffs -

Appellees.

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

Before TYMKOVICH, EID, and CARSON, Circuit Judges.

Banner Bank appeals the district court’s award of attorneys’ fees after it lost a breach of contract dispute with Loree Smith. This is the Bank’s second appeal on the issue. In the first appeal we vacated the award of fees because we concluded the district court should have applied federal law in making the award, not state law. Banner Bank v. Smith, 30 F.4th 1232 (10th Cir. 2022).

*

This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1 and 10th Circuit Rule 32.1.

On remand, the district court re-affirmed its finding that Banner Bank pursued claims against Ms. Smith in bad faith and awarded attorneys’ fees under the federal bad-faith exception to the American Rule. In the alternative, the court awarded attorneys’ fees as direct damages for Banner Bank’s breach of an agreement releasing Ms. Smith from certain suits.

Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we AFFIRM the district court’s award of attorneys’ fees. The district court adequately supported the award of fees for bad faith.

I. Background

A. Banner Bank I In Banner Bank I, the district court oversaw a trial concerning real-estate foreclosures in Oregon. Banner Bank sought to foreclose on 12 parcels of Oregon land that James Smith had pledged as collateral for a 2009 loan borrowed from the Bank’s predecessor in interest.

Because Mr. Smith was an owner of the company that took out the 2009 loan, he personally guaranteed the loan. He also offered as collateral 12 parcels of land in Oregon. One of those parcels—Unit 7—was a developed parcel and jointly owned by Mr. Smith and his then-wife, Loree Smith, as tenants in the entirety. Ms. Smith, however, refused to sign the Deed of Trust that would pledge as collateral the jointly owned parcel and the other 11 parcels. Without recording the defective Deed of Trust, the Bank funded the loan.

In 2010, Mr. Smith and the Bank’s predecessor entered into a Release Agreement that “RELEASE[D] and FOREVER DISCHARGE[D] Loree Smith of and from any and all claims, controversies, disputes, liabilities, obligations, demands, damages, debts, liens, actions and causes of action of any and every nature whatsoever relating to the Loan.” App. 840.

In 2011, the loan went into default. Banner Bank attempted to record the Deed of Trust, which lacked Ms. Smith’s signature, but the county office rejected the Deed. After consulting with the county office about how to make the Deed recordable, counsel for the Bank crossed out Ms. Smith’s signature block on the Deed. The Bank then recorded the altered Deed.

In 2012, Banner Bank sued to foreclose the 11 parcels and Mr. Smith’s interest in Unit 7. As part of its suit, the Bank sought a declaratory judgment that Ms. Smith did not hold any interest in the 11 parcels. Ms. Smith filed a motion to dismiss and then an answer requesting that the underlying Deed be canceled. She asserted counterclaims for slander of title, civil conspiracy, abuse of process, and breach of the Release Agreement. Mr. Smith also raised counterclaims against the Bank, alleging improper securitization of pledged property and breach of contract regarding the sale of intellectual property.

After discovery, in 2015, the Bank moved for summary judgment on all the counterclaims. In February of 2017, upon the prompting of the court, the Bank released its interest in Unit 7 and partially reconveyed the Deed to Ms. Smith, dropping its claim to foreclose on that property. The court then granted Banner Bank

summary judgment on Mr. Smith’s liability under the Deed and on all Ms. Smith’s counterclaims except the breach-of-Release claim. It also dismissed with prejudice Mr. Smith’s counterclaims and determined that the Bank’s claim for declaratory relief regarding Ms. Smith’s interest in the 11 parcels was moot.

At trial in June, Banner Bank sought to foreclose on the Deed for the remaining 11 parcels, and Ms. Smith counterclaimed that the Bank had breached the Release Agreement. When the Deed of Trust was offered into evidence on the second day of trial, additional alterations were discovered. Some alterations were visible on this Deed—a series of numbers written on the top of the first page and later whited out, and a note written and erased in the right-hand corner—that were not visible in the copies produced before trial. These alterations were not visible on the copies attached to the complaint, recorded at the county office, produced in pre-trial disclosures, or used in depositions. The other Deed alterations—namely, the crossing out of Ms. Smith’s signature block and the notary acknowledgement, as well as the numbers “132” written on the upper left-hand corner of the first page in blue ink— were visible on the aforementioned copies.

Because Mr. Smith filed for bankruptcy before closing arguments, Banner Bank’s foreclosure claim was mooted and the primary issue before the court became Ms. Smith’s counterclaim for breach of the Release Agreement. In addition to her counterclaim, Ms. Smith pursued attorneys’ fees under the bad-faith exception to the American Rule regarding attorneys’ fees.

The district court concluded that the Bank breached the Release twice over. It found that Banner Bank breached the Release (1) by bringing the claim for declaratory relief against Ms. Smith and (2) by seeking to foreclose on Mr. Smith’s interest in Unit 7, because both were “claims . . . of any and every nature whatsoever relating to the Loan.” Id. at 840. Additionally, the district court concluded that Banner Bank acted in bad faith for several reasons:

1. The Bank “asserted this action against Loree in clear violation of [the Release] conditions” and opposed her motion that she be dismissed. Id. at 857.

2. The Bank “conceal[ed]” “the [d]iscovered [a]lterations until the second day of trial[,] substantially disadvantage[ing] Loree by limiting how Loree could pursue her case.” Id. at 859.

3. The Bank “took advantage of Loree by moving to dismiss her claims and by continuing to pursue the foreclosure and sale of Unit 7 without disclosing” the discovered alterations. Id.

The court granted $105,550 in attorneys’ fees under Utah’s bad-faith statute, Utah Code § 78B-5-825(1). This amount reflects an $18,000 reduction the court granted upon Banner Bank’s objection to inadequacies in opposing counsel’s fee affidavit.

On appeal, we reversed the district court’s award of attorneys’ fees because the award was improper under Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938). Banner Bank, 30 F.4th at 1241. Erie required the district court, as a court sitting in diversity, to apply federal procedural law and state substantive law, but the court

erroneously applied Utah’s procedural attorneys’-fee statute. We remanded to the district court for it to determine whether attorneys’ fees were appropriate under Ms. Smith’s other preserved theories—namely, under the federal bad-faith exception or as direct damages for breach of contract.

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