Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC v. Shadow Springs Community Association

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided November 21, 2019·No. 2:16-cv-02677·Unknown

Opinion

Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC, et al., Case No.: 2:16-cv-02677-JAD-DJA

Plaintiffs Order Granting Summary Judgment v. in Favor of Plaintiffs Based on Federal Foreclosure Bar, Dismissing Shadow Springs Community Association, et al, Remaining Claims, and Denying Remaining Motions as Moot Defendants ______________________________________ [ECF Nos. 48, 61, 70] ALL OTHER CLAIMS AND PARTIES Nevada law holds that a properly conducted nonjudicial foreclosure sale by a homeowners’ association to enforce a superpriority lien extinguishes a first deed of trust. But when that deed of trust belongs to government-sponsored lender Freddie Mac, and the foreclosure sale occurs while Freddie Mac is under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and without that agency’s consent, federal law shields that security interest from extinguishment. That shield is known as the Federal Foreclosure Bar. Freddie Mac and its loan servicer Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC bring this quiet-title action to determine the effect of a 2013 nonjudicial foreclosure sale on the deed of trust securing the mortgage on a home.1 Because plaintiffs have shown that the Federal Foreclosure Bar prevented that sale from extinguishing the deed of trust, I grant summary judgment in their favor and close this case.

1 This is but one of hundreds of similar cases between lenders and HOA-foreclosure-sale purchasers that have inundated this district. Background The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac, which has been under the conservatorship of the FHFA since 2008,2 purchased the mortgage on the home located at 6364 Glenolden Street in North Las Vegas, Nevada in 2005, along with the deed of trust that secures it.3 The deed of trust has been assigned several times to various nominees

acting as Freddie Mac’s loan-servicing agents.4 Bayview currently services the loan and has since August 11, 2015; before that, the loan was serviced by Bank of America. 5 The home is located in the Shadow Springs common-interest community and subject to its homeowners’ association’s covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs), which require the owners of property within this planned development to pay assessments.6 The Nevada Legislature gave homeowners associations (HOAs) a superpriorty lien against residential property for certain delinquent assessments and established in Chapter 116 of the Nevada Revised Statutes a nonjudicial foreclosure procedure for HOAs to enforce that lien.7 When the owner of this Glenolden Street home, Cesar Gomez, fell behind on his assessments,

2 I take judicial notice of this well-known fact, which no party disputes. 3 ECF No. 61-2 at 4, ¶ 5(d). 4 Id. at 4–5, ¶¶ 5(g) & (h). 5 Id. 6 ECF No. 61-1 at 18 (planned-unit-development rider). 7 Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.3116; SFR Invs. Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank (“SFR I”), 334 P.3d 408, 409 (Nev. 2014). the Shadow Springs HOA sold it to the 6364 Glenolden Street Trust in such a nonjudicial foreclosure sale on November 20, 2013.8 The sale recorded six days later.9 As the Nevada Supreme Court held in SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank in 2014, because NRS 116.3116(2) gives an HOA “a true superpriority lien, proper foreclosure of” that lien under the non-judicial foreclosure process created by NRS Chapters 107 and 116 “will

extinguish a first deed of trust.”10 But the Federal Foreclosure Bar in 12 U.S.C. § 4617(j)(3) creates an exception to that rule.11 This safeguard is contained in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA, codified at 12 U.S.C. § 4511 et seq.), which went into effect in 2008, established the FHFA and placed Freddie Mac under that agency’s conservatorship.12 Under HERA’s Federal Foreclosure Bar, when Freddie Mac is the beneficiary of the deed of trust at the time of the foreclosure sale and Freddie Mac is under the conservatorship of the FHFA, the deed of trust is not extinguished and instead survives the sale unless the agency affirmatively relinquished that interest.13 Freddie Mac and Bayview sue the foreclosure-sale purchaser Trust, the Shadow Springs

Community Association (the HOA), and the HOA’s foreclosure agent, Red Rock Financial

8 ECF No. 61-10 (foreclosure deed); ECF No. 61-7 (Notice of Default and Election to Sell); ECF No. 61-9 (Notice of Trustee’s Sale). I take judicial notice of all recorded documents in the record. 9 ECF No. 61-10 at 2. 10 SFR I, 334 P.3d at 419. 11 See Berezovsky v. Moniz, 869 F.3d 923, 927 n.1 (9th Cir. 2017). 12 Berezovsky, 869 F.3d at 925. 13 Id. at 933; Saticoy Bay LLC Series 9641 Christine View v. Fed. Nat’l Mortg. Ass’n, 417 P.3d 363, 368 (Nev. 2018) (“Because Fannie Mae was under the FHFA’s conservatorship at the time of the homeowners’ association foreclosure sale, the Federal Foreclosure Bar protected the deed of trust from extinguishment.”). Services.14 They plead declaratory-relief and quiet-title claims under three theories, asserting that the Federal Foreclosure Bar or the tender of the full superpriority portion of the HOA’s lien by Bayview’s predecessor servicer BAC Home Loans Servicing prevented the foreclosure sale from extinguishing the deed of trust and, alternatively, that Nevada’s HOA lien-foreclosure scheme was unconstitutional as the Ninth Circuit held in Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells

Fargo.15 Plaintiffs also plead alternative claims for breach of NRS 116.1113 and wrongful foreclosure that are conditioned on the failure of their quiet-title claims, and a claim for injunctive relief during the pendency of this case. I find that the declaratory-relief and quiet-title claims are all the type of claim recognized by the Nevada Supreme Court in Shadow Wood Homeowners Association, Inc. v. New York Community Bancorp—an action “seek[ing] to quiet title by invoking the court’s inherent equitable jurisdiction to settle title disputes.”16 The resolution of such a claim is part of “[t]he long-standing and broad inherent power of a court to sit in equity and quiet title, including setting aside a foreclosure sale if the circumstances support” it.17

The Trust counterclaims against Bayview, seeking a Shadow Wood-type declaration that the deed of trust was extinguished and preventing Bayview from selling or transferring the

14 ECF No. 26 (amended complaint). 15 Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells Fargo Bank, 832 F.3d 1154 (9th Cir. 2016). 16 Shadow Wood Homeowners Ass’n, Inc. v. New York Cmty. Bancorp, 366 P.3d 1105, 1110– 1111 (Nev. 2016). 17 Id. at 1112. property.18 The HOA crossclaims against Red Rock for indemnity, contribution, and breach of contract.19 Discovery has closed,20 and plaintiffs move for summary judgment, arguing that the Federal Foreclosure Bar and Bank of America’s pre-foreclosure tender of the full superpriority portion of the HOA’s lien saved Freddie Mac’s deed of trust on this property from

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