Beneficial Consumer Discount Co. v. Vukmam

37 A.3d 596, 2012 Pa. Super. 18, 2012 Pa. Super. LEXIS 19
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 30, 2012
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 37 A.3d 596 (Beneficial Consumer Discount Co. v. Vukmam) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania 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. Vukmam, 37 A.3d 596, 2012 Pa. Super. 18, 2012 Pa. Super. LEXIS 19 (Pa. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION BY

COLVILLE, J.:

This is an appeal from an order that sustained Appellee’s “Motion to Set Aside Judgment and Sheriffs Sale.” We affirm.

The relevant background underlying this matter can be summarized in the following manner. In October of 2006, Appellant filed a complaint in mortgage foreclosure against Appellee. According to the complaint, Appellee owns a home subject to a mortgage for which Appellant is the mortgagee. Appellant averred that Appellee’s mortgage was in default due to Appellee’s failure to pay her monthly mortgage costs. [598]*598The parties eventually agreed to settle the matter. In short, the parties agreed to enter a judgment in favor of Appellant for $217,508.81 together with interest. They further agreed that, so long as Appellee made regular payments to Appellant, Appellant would not execute on the judgment. The trial court approved the parties’ settlement on May 7, 2009.

On April 5, 2010, Appellant filed an affidavit of default wherein it alleged that Appellee had defaulted on her payment obligations. The following day, Appellant filed a praecipe for writ of execution. On August 2, 2010, the subject property was sold by sheriffs sale; Appellant was the successful bidder.

On August 31, 2010, Appellee filed a document which she entitled “Motion to Set Aside Judgment and Sheriffs Sale.” Appellee contended that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the matter because Appellant failed to comply with the notice requirements of the Homeowner’s Emergency Mortgage Act, 35 P.S. §§ 1680.401c et seq. (“Act 91”). More specifically, Appellee maintained that the Act 91 notice she received from Appellant failed to inform her that she had thirty days to have a face-to-face meeting with Appellant. After holding a hearing, the trial court agreed with Appellee that the Act 91 notice was deficient. The court issued an order setting aside the sheriffs sale and the judgment; the order also dismissed Appellant’s complaint without prejudice. Appellant timely filed an appeal.1

In its brief to this Court, Appellant asks us to consider the following questions:

A. Did Section 403c of Act 91 require [Appellant] to notify [Appellee] of an option to have a face to face meeting with [Appellant] where both the plain language of the statute and the history of such Act evidence a legislative intention to vest in the Agency the discretion to select which of these options should have been offered to homeowners in the Uniform Notice adopted by the Agency for use by all Lenders under the Act?
B. Was not the determination of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency to remove any reference in its model Uniform Act 91 notice to homeowners having a face to face meeting with their lenders reasonable and consistent with the stated purpose and goals of such Act?
C. Should not the court below have deferred to the experience and expertise of the Agency in its administration of the Act, and should not the court below have upheld the validity of the Act 91 Notice sent to [Appellee] herein where such notice was entirely consistent with the model Uniform Notice adopted by the Agency for use by all lenders?
D. Even if the Act 91 notice should have offered [Appellee] the option of having a face to face meeting with her lender, should the court below have dis[599]*599missed this action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction where [Appellee] had fully exercised her rights under Act 91 and was not in any way prejudiced by such omission?
E. Should not [Appellee] have been es-topped from raising any objection to the Act 91 notice provided to her, and should not [Appellee’s] objection to such notice have been barred by laches, where [Appellee] admitted to the validity of such notice in discovery and consented to the entry of judgment, and where [Appellee’s] objection to such notice was made for the first time after a sheriffs sale had been held almost four (4) years after the commencement of the action?

Appellant’s Brief at 3-4.

As an initial matter, we will consider whether the trial court properly entertained the Act 91 notice issue that Appel-lee presented in her “Motion to Set Aside Judgment and Sheriffs Sale.” The trial court determined that, when a mortgagee provides to a mortgagor a deficient Act 91 notice and then files a mortgage foreclosure action, the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to entertain the action. In its argument to this Court, Appellant raises a number of doctrines, including laches and res judicata, in arguing that Appellee untimely presented her Act 91 notice issue. Appellant’s Brief at 31-33.

We begin our analysis of this threshold issue by noting the following principles of law.

The test for whether a court has subject matter jurisdiction inquires into the competency of the court to determine controversies of the general class to which the case presented for consideration belongs.

In re Administrative Order No. 1-MD-2003, 594 Pa. 346, 936 A.2d 1, 5 (2007) (citation omitted).

It is the law of this Commonwealth that a judgment may be attacked for lack of jurisdiction at any time, as any such judgment or decree rendered by a court that lacks subject matter or personal jurisdiction is null and void.

Bell v. Kater, 943 A.2d 293, 298 (Pa.Super.2008) (citation omitted).

Appellee has never questioned the competency of the trial court to entertain mortgage foreclosure actions. Indeed, the Rules of Civil Procedure govern such actions, Pa.R.C.P. 1141 et seq., and save for exceptions that are irrelevant to this matter, the courts of common pleas have unlimited original jurisdiction over all actions and proceedings in this Commonwealth. 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 931(a). Appellee’s complaints regarding the deficiencies in the Act 91 notice sound more in the nature of a jurisdictional challenge based upon procedural matters. Procedurally based jurisdictional challenges can be waived. See, e.g., Hauger v. Hauger, 376 Pa. 216, 101 A.2d 632, 633 (1954) (“It is the rule that consent or waiver will not confer jurisdiction of the cause of action or subject matter where no jurisdiction exists. However, this rule does not apply to ... jurisdiction based upon procedural matters, as to which defects can always be waived.”) (citation omitted).

However, Appellee correctly highlights that, in the context of discussing subject matter jurisdiction, this Court has concluded, “[T]he notice requirements pertaining to foreclosure proceedings are jurisdictional, and, where applicable, a failure to comply therewith will deprive a court of jurisdiction to act.” Philadelphia Housing Authority v. Barbour, 405 Pa.Super. 140, 592 A.2d 47, 48 (1991) (citation omitted), affirmed without opinion, 532 Pa. 212, 615 [600]*600A.2d 339 (1992); see also, Marra v. Stocker, 532 Pa. 187, 615 A.2d 326

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 A.3d 596, 2012 Pa. Super. 18, 2012 Pa. Super. LEXIS 19, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beneficial-consumer-discount-co-v-vukmam-pasuperct-2012.