Debral Realty, Inc. v. Marlboro Cooperative Bank

6 Mass. L. Rptr. 121
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedOctober 10, 1996
DocketNo. 925292
StatusPublished

This text of 6 Mass. L. Rptr. 121 (Debral Realty, Inc. v. Marlboro Cooperative Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Debral Realty, Inc. v. Marlboro Cooperative Bank, 6 Mass. L. Rptr. 121 (Mass. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

Bohn, J.

INTRODUCTION

On June 26, 1996, this case was before the Court for trial, jury-waived. The issue at trial was whether a “dragnet clause” contained in a mortgage on a piece of property located on Hastings Street in Marlboro was intended by the parties to the mortgage to act as security for a later loan on a piece of property located on West Main Street in Marlboro.1 For the reasons which follow, the Court orders that judgment be entered for the plaintiff in the amount of $85,200.12.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Based on the credible evidence, as well as all inferences reasonably to be drawn from that evidence, the following facts are found:

On March 30, 1988, Richard J. Budryk and Silva Y. Budryk executed a note to Marlboro Cooperative bank (“the bank”) in the amount of $32,800. This note was secured by a first mortgage granted to the bank by “Richard J. Budiyk and Silva Y. Budiyk, husband and wife, as tenants by the entirety” as mortgagor on real estate located at 23 Hastings Street, Marlboro, MA (“the Hastings Street mortgage”). In relevant part, the Hastings Street mortgage, in addition to providing that it was to secure the payment of the Hastings Street note, contained the following language, known as a “dragnet clause”: “also to secure the payment of all other indebtedness of the mortgagor to the mortgagee hereafter arising” (“the dragnet clause”).

The plaintiff and the bank agree that there is no evidence of unfairness or oppressiveness in the relationship between the bank and the Budryks, and that there is no evidence other than the document as to the intent of the bank or the Budryks in executing the Hastings Street mortgage.

On March 22, 1985, Richard J. Budryk and Silva Y. Budryk, individually and as trustees of Westside Realty Trust, executed an additional note to the bank in the amount of $130,000 (“the West Main Street note”). This note was secured by a first mortgage granted to the bank by “Richard J. Budryk and Silva Y. Budryk, Trustees of Westside Realty Trust” as mortgagor on real estate located at 214 West Main Street, Marlboro, MA (“the West Main Street mortgage"). The West Main Street mortgage makes no mention of the Hastings Street Mortgage.

On March 11, 1989, the Budryks granted the plaintiff a junior mortgage on the West Main Street property to secure payment of a loan. On March 20, 1989, the Budryks granted the plaintiff a junior mortgage on the Hastings Street property to secure payment of a second loan. On January 31, 1991, the plaintiff foreclosed its mortgages on both properties and became the owner of the properties subject to the bank’s mortgages.

In February 1991, the plaintiff ceased making monthly payments to the bank on the West Main Street note although payments continued to be made on the Hastings Street note; and, although plaintiff has offered to pay off the Hastings Street note, the bank subsequently placed both loans into default, believing that default on the West Main Street note also constituted a default on the Hastings Street note pursuant to the dragnet clause. The bank then commenced actions to foreclose on both properties.

The parties agree that the foreclosure of the West Main Street properly left a deficiency of over $44,000 on the West Main Street note. The parties also agree that foreclosure of the Hastings Street property, for which the bank was the successful bidder at $85,000, yielded a surplus of $43,869.28, excluding expenses of the foreclosure sale.

The plaintiff owed $31,799.88 on the Hastings Street note at the time of the bank’s foreclosure. Because the Hastings Street property was appraised at $117,000, the plaintiff had an equity of $85,200.12, raising the issue of whether the measure of damages, if the plaintiff prevails on the underlying issue of the applicability of the dragnet clause, should be measured by the amount of the surplus after foreclosure or the amount of the plaintiffs equity at the time of foreclosure.

DISCUSSION

A. The Applicability of the Dragnet Clause

The leading Massachusetts cases with respect to construing the scope of a dragnet clause are Everett Credit Union v. Allied Ambulance Services, Inc., 12 Mass.App.Ct. 343 (1981), and Financial Acceptance Corp. v. Garvey, 6 Mass.App.Ct. 610 (1978). In Everett, the court stated that dragnet clauses should be read narrowly when used oppressively or as a device for fraud. Everett, 12 Mass.App.Ct. at 347. In their Agreed [122]*122Statement of Facts, the parties concede that there is no evidence of unfairness or oppressiveness in the relationship between the bank and the Budryks, and that there is no evidence other than the document as Lo the intent of the bank or the Budiyks in executing the Hastings Street Mortgage. Furthermore, although the parties have not informed the court as to the purpose of the Westside Realty Trust, the bank makes no suggestion that the Budiyks, in taking out the West Main Street loan as trustees of that trust, were attempting to evade the dragnet clause. A concomitant principle to the Everett holding, which obviously envisions oppressiveness or fraud on the part of the mortgagee, would be that the Court, in the absence of any evidence of unfairness on the part of the mortgagor, should not construe the dragnet clause overly broadly. With this in mind, the Court holds that the dragnet clause should operate exactly as written; see Everett, 12 Mass.App.Ct. at 347; and that will be the principle which governs the analysis which follows.

The dragnet clause secures “indebtedness of the mortgagor to the mortgagee hereafter arising” (emphasis added), and the mortgagor is identified as “Richard J. Budryk and Silva Y. Budryk, husband and wife, as tenants by the entirety.” This envisions the Budryks as a single unit, an interpretation supported by the fact that the mortgage document repeatedly refers to the “mortgagor” and not “mortgagors.” Nothing in the West Main Street note or the West Main Street mortgage indicates that the West Main Street loan was taken out by the Budiyks as tenants by the entirety, or even that the properly securing the note was owned by the Budryks as tenants by the entirely. Nor does the bank offer evidence that the property was owned by the Budryks in that capacity, in which case an inference that the West Main Street loan was intended to be secured by the dragnet clause may perhaps be justified. Thus, it cannot be said that the dragnet clause covers the West Main Street note.

The Court’s decision is consistent with the Garvey court’s determination of the factors to be considered in determining whether a debt is secured by a dragnet clause: whether the debt is of the same general kind of those specifically secured or bears a sufficiently close relationship to the original indebtedness, and whether the mortgagee relied on the security in making the loan. See Garvey, 6 Mass.App.Ct. at 613. The Hastings Street loan was made to a married couple as tenants by the entirely, and the West Main Street loan was made to two individuals in their capacities as trustees of a realty trust. Unlike Garvey, where the court found two debts to be of the same general kind, although the mortgage containing the dragnet clause was signed by the debtor in his individual capacity and the later note was signed as trustee of a trust and as an endorser, see 6 Mass.App.Ct.

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Related

Foxborough Savings Bank v. Ballarino (In Re Ballarino)
180 B.R. 343 (D. Massachusetts, 1995)
Everett Credit Union v. Allied Ambulance Services, Inc.
424 N.E.2d 1142 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1981)
Financial Acceptance Corp. v. Garvey
380 N.E.2d 1332 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1978)
Rogers v. Barnes
38 L.R.A. 145 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1897)
Goldman v. Damon
172 N.E. 226 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1930)
Sandler v. Green
192 N.E. 39 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1934)
Cambridge Savings Bank v. Cronin
194 N.E. 289 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1935)
Debral Realty, Inc. v. Marlboro Cooperative Bank
1 Mass. L. Rptr. 553 (Massachusetts Superior Court, 1994)

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Bluebook (online)
6 Mass. L. Rptr. 121, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/debral-realty-inc-v-marlboro-cooperative-bank-masssuperct-1996.