Beneficial Consumer Discount Co. v. Hoffman

79 Pa. D. & C.4th 496
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Fulton County
DecidedMarch 29, 2006
Docketno. 41 of 2005-C
StatusPublished

This text of 79 Pa. D. & C.4th 496 (Beneficial Consumer Discount Co. v. Hoffman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Fulton County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beneficial Consumer Discount Co. v. Hoffman, 79 Pa. D. & C.4th 496 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2006).

Opinion

VAN HORN, J,

FACTS OF CASE

(1) Susan B. Rupert (defendant), f/k/a Susan B. Hoffman, is the owner of a residence located at 29310 Great Cove Road, Fort Littleton, PA 17223. This property is the subject of this foreclosure action.

(2) Defendant entered into a loan agreement with Beneficial Consumer Discount Company (plaintiff) on or about May 26, 1998. The loan agreement was further secured by a mortgage on the residential property.

(3) The agreement between the parties called for the defendant to pay monthly payments of $521.11 to the [498]*498plaintiff. The payments were set to commence on June 26, 1998 and continue thereafter until May 2003.

(4) On May 26, 2003, a “balloon payment” of $36,121.90 was due as the final payment.

(5) On April 4, 2003, the defendant made her April payment directly to the plaintiff in the plaintiff’s Chambersburg office. During this visit, she allegedly inquired about the balloon payment and possible refinancing. As per the defendant’s pleadings, Karen Parker, an employee and representative of the plaintiff, advised the defendant that there was in fact no balloon payment due in May and further directed the defendant to continue to only pay the monthly payments of $521.11.

(6) In May 2003, the defendant made atypical monthly payment to the plaintiff’s office and again purportedly inquired about the balloon payment being due. Ms. Parker again allegedly insisted that no balloon payment was due at any time.

(7) Furthermore, the defendant asserts that she continued to inquire, for a third time, about the balloon payment and was again told that only monthly payments were due on her account.

(8) Through the next several months until February 2004, the defendant timely made her monthly payments. By mutual agreement, the payments for March, April and May 2004 were deferred. In June 2004, the defendant again commenced paying her monthly payments to the plaintiff.

(9) Due to financial difficulties, the defendant admits that she defaulted on the mortgage in October, November and December 2004. As a result, the plaintiff sent a foreclosure notice to the defendant in December [499]*4992004. The notice stated that the defendant needed to pay, in 30 days, an amount of $1,563.33 to reinstate the mortgage.

(10) By January 3,2005, the defendant had forwarded $ 1,5 71.11 to the plaintiff and believed that she had reinstated the mortgage.

(11) Despite the balance being paid, the plaintiff returned the payments to the defendant. Also, the defendant received a second foreclosure notice stating that $41,530.53 was due to reinstate the mortgage. This larger amount was due to the incorporation of the balloon payment.

(12) The defendant did not pay the stated amount in the second notice; therefore, on February 22, 2005, the plaintiff filed the foreclosure complaint. The defendant filed an answer, new matter and counterclaim on March 28, 2005.

DISCUSSION

Background

This matter comes before the court as a result of the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment that was filed in the case on July 12,2005. The court held very limited oral arguments in December of2005 because of the parties’ firm assertion to the court that the matter was moving towards absolute settlement. After argument, the parties were instructed to keep the court abreast on the progress of the settlement discussions. It was not until February of 2006 that the court was made aware of the breakdown in negotiations and the need for a ruling on the outstanding motion.

[500]*500After duly reviewing the record and reading the briefs of the parties, the court is now ready to render a decision on the plaintiff’s motion for summaiy judgment.

Summary Judgment Generally

As per Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1035.2, “any party may move for summary judgment in whole or in part as a matter of law whenever there is no genuine issue of any material fact as to a necessary element of the cause of action or defense which could be established by additional discovery or expert report.” The record is to be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and all doubts as to the existence of material fact must be resolved against the moving party. Albright v. Abington Memorial Hospital, 548 Pa. 268, 696 A.2d 1159 (1997). The moving party has the burden of proving that there is no genuine issue of material fact. Thompson Coal Company v. Pike Coal Company, 488 Pa. 198, 412 A.2d 466 (1979). In response, the non-moving party may not rest upon pleadings alone, but must set forth specific facts which demonstrate a genuine issue for trial. Phaff v. Gerner, 451 Pa. 146, 303 A.2d 826 (1973). The purpose of summary judgment is to preserve judicial time and promote faster dispositions of matters by avoiding unnecessary trials.

Should the Court Grant Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment in Regards to the Original Foreclosure Action?

In the plaintiff’s brief in support for the motion for summary judgment, the plaintiff contends that the defendant has admitted in the various pleadings that (1) [501]*501she is the owner of subject property; (2) she executed the mortgage encumbering the property; (3) the mortgage is in default; (4) she has not paid the mortgage; and (5) she was sent all statutorily required notices. With these admissions, the plaintiff therefore believes that contractual liability of the defendant can be clearly determined as a matter of law. See Paul Revere Protective Life Insurance Co. v. Weis, 535 F. Supp. 379 (E.D. Pa. 1981); Kane Gas Light & Hearing Co. v. Pennzoil Co., 587 F. Supp. 910 (W.D. Pa. 1984). Since the defendant has not provided any evidence or argument to the contrary, the plaintiff asserts that the summary judgment motion should be granted.

The defendant promptly responded to the argument set forth in the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment. In pleadings and an opposition brief, the defendant raises, though awkwardly and confusingly, the defense of waiver as part of the foreclosure action. The defendant defends the foreclosure action by asserting that representatives of the plaintiff informed her that a balloon payment was not due, and then the plaintiff continued to accept monthly payments, in the alternative, for a substantial period of time. Therefore, the defendant would contend that the plaintiff’s course of conduct clearly indicated an intention to waive the contractual right to a balloon payment. It was only in January of2005 that the plaintiff required the balloon payment. In the end, the defendant asserts this genuine issue of material fact and argues that summary judgment would be inappropriate.

First, for its analysis, this court again notes that summary judgment would only be appropriately granted if the case involved no issues of material fact and the case could then be decided as a matter of law. The plaintiff is [502]

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Related

Albright v. Abington Memorial Hospital
696 A.2d 1159 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1997)
Paul Revere Protective Life Insurance v. Weis
535 F. Supp. 379 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1981)
Kane Gas Light & Heating Co. v. Pennzoil Co.
587 F. Supp. 910 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1984)
Thompson Coal Co. v. Pike Coal Co.
412 A.2d 466 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1979)
Phaff v. Gerner
303 A.2d 826 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1973)
Chrysler First Business Credit Corp. v. Gourniak
601 A.2d 338 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1992)
Cunningham v. McWilliams
714 A.2d 1054 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1998)
Mayer Bros. Construction Co. v. American Sterilizer Co.
101 A. 1002 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1917)

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Bluebook (online)
79 Pa. D. & C.4th 496, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beneficial-consumer-discount-co-v-hoffman-pactcomplfulton-2006.