Emigrant Residential LLC v. Pinti

134 F.4th 626
Court of Appeals for the First Circuit·Decided April 11, 2025·No. 24-1404·Published

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

No. 24-1404 EMIGRANT RESIDENTIAL, LLC, Plaintiff, Appellee,

v.

LINDA S. PINTI,

Defendant, Appellant,

LESLEY R. PHILLIPS; ANY AND ALL OCCUPANTS, Defendants.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Denise J. Casper, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Montecalvo, Lynch, and Kayatta, Circuit Judges.

Eric E. Renner, with whom Duffy & Sweeney, Ltd., was on brief, for appellant.

Brian C. Linehan, with whom Reneau J. Longoria and Doonan, Graves & Longoria, LLC were on brief, for appellee.

April 11, 2025

LYNCH, Circuit Judge. After long-running battles in the Massachusetts state and federal courts arising from a 2009 default on mortgage payments, this appeal arrives in a case we will call Pinti III. This time we affirm the entry of judgment for Emigrant Residential, LLC ("Emigrant"), which struck a recorded discharge of a mortgage mistakenly given by Emigrant Mortgage Company (EMC), a related entity. We also affirm entry of judgment against the counterclaims brought by appellant Linda Pinti.

I.

We recount the facts of this appeal in the light most favorable to Pinti and draw all reasonable inferences in Pinti's favor. See Universal Trading & Inv. Co. v. Bureau for Representing Ukrainian Ints. in Int'l & Foreign Cts., 87 F.4th 62, 65-66 (1st Cir. 2023). We review a grant of a motion for summary judgment de novo, affirming the grant if the record "presents no genuine issue as to any material fact and reflects the movant's entitlement to judgment as a matter of law." Mullane v. U.S. Dep't of Just., 113 F.4th 123, 130 (1st Cir. 2024) (quoting McKenney v. Mangino, 873 F.3d 75, 80 (1st Cir. 2017)). In doing so, we "must ignore conclusory allegations, improbable inferences, and unsupported speculation." Viscito v. Nat'l Plan. Corp., 34 F.4th 78, 83 (1st Cir. 2022) (quoting Garcia-Garcia v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 878 F.3d 411, 417 (1st Cir. 2017)).

In 1982, Lesley Phillips purchased an apartment located at 1643 Cambridge Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, assuming a preexisting mortgage with a balance of roughly $40,000. Pinti, Phillips's spouse, lived with Phillips at the property from 1987 onwards and was added to the deed in 2005. As part of refinancing a 2005 home equity loan, on March 13, 2008, Pinti and Phillips executed and delivered a promissory note to EMC for $160,000 (the "Note"). Pinti and Phillips mortgaged the property to EMC to secure the note and the mortgage was recorded (the "Mortgage"). On August 1, 2009, Pinti and Phillips defaulted on the Note by failing to make payments. On September 29, 2009, EMC sent Pinti and Phillips a 90-day notice of right to cure.

Various transactions are relevant between Emigrant affiliates and Federal Home Loan Bank of New York ("FHLBNY"). In December 1999, Emigrant's parent company, Emigrant Savings Bank ("Emigrant Bank"), entered into an Advances, Collateral Pledge and Security Agreement (the "Advances Agreement") with FHLBNY. The Advances Agreement provided, inter alia, that as security for loans that FHLBNY may advance to Emigrant Bank, Emigrant Bank "hereby assigns, transfers, and pledges to [FHLBNY], and grants to [FHLBNY] a security interest in all of the Capital Stock, Mortgage Collateral, Securities Collateral and Other Collateral." The Advances Agreement defined Mortgage Collateral as including "first

mortgages and deeds of trust . . . and all notes, bonds or other instruments evidencing loans secured thereby."

On April 17, 2008, about a month after the execution of the Note and Mortgage, ESB-MH Holdings, LLC (of which Emigrant, the appellant, is the successor-by-merger), Emigrant Bank, and FHLBNY executed a Subsidiary/Affiliate Collateral Pledge and Security Agreement (the "Pledge Agreement"). The Pledge Agreement provided that ESB-MH "assigns, transfers, and pledges to [FHLBNY] and grants [FHLBNY] a security interest in" certain specified collateral. That collateral also constituted "Collateral for all purposes under the Advances Agreement," and the Pledge Agreement established that "in addition to any rights or duties with respect to the [collateral] otherwise expressly created by this Pledge Agreement," FHLBNY and ESB-MH "shall have the same rights and duties with respect to the [collateral] as . . . with respect to Collateral under the Advances Agreement." The Pledge Agreement required ESB-MH, inter alia, to deliver the collateral to FHLBNY on demand.

On August 4, 2009, FHLBNY demanded that Emigrant Bank deliver the collateral to FHLBNY. FHLBNY informed Emigrant Bank that it had "moved Emigrant [Bank] to the Listing & Segregation II collateral category for all its mortgage collateral" and referred Emigrant Bank to FHLBNY's Members Product Guide and an attached Delivery of Mortgage Collateral Procedures document. The Listing

& Segregation II category imposed on Emigrant Bank and ESB-MH certain requirements for maintaining collateral, including endorsing each promissory note in blank and preparing individual mortgage assignments to FHLBNY in recordable form. ESB-MH was also required to stamp loan files as assigned to FHLBNY and maintain the files in a separate vault or storage area marked "Federal Home Loan Bank of New York." Between roughly November 2009 and January 2010, ESB-MH prepared mortgage assignments and note allonges for mortgage collateral pledged or to be pledged as security for loans from FHLBNY.

More specifically, as to Pinti's Note and Mortgage, on November 30, 2009, EMC assigned the Mortgage to ESB-MH. At the same time, ESB-MH endorsed the Note in blank and executed another assignment of the Mortgage to FHLBNY. EMC never physically delivered that assignment to FHLBNY, but Pinti argues, and Emigrant disputes, that the assignment was delivered in 2009 based on the terms of the Advances Agreement and the Pledge Agreement.

On December 28, 2009, the Notice of Right to Cure expired, and EMC initiated foreclosure proceedings on the property. Between 2010 and February 2011, Pinti filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and obtained a discharge. On August 22, 2011, EMC issued a written response to a Qualified Written Request from Pinti and Phillips, stating that ESB-MH was the owner of the loan and EMC was the servicer of the loan. EMC further stated that the

assignment transferring ownership of the Note and Mortgage to ESB- MH had not been recorded and that the Note, Mortgage, and assignment were in EMC's possession.

EMC proceeded with a foreclosure sale and sold the property to Harold Wilion on August 9, 2012. EMC recorded the foreclosure deed. Joel Marcano, EMC's assistant treasurer, attested that under "EMC's established loan servicing policies and procedures, upon receipt of the foreclosure sale proceeds from a third[-]party purchaser following a foreclosure sale, EMC's loan servicing department is to prepare a Memorandum" to EMC's loan payoff department. The memorandum advises the loan payoff department "of the amount of funds received, confirming that the funds were received following a foreclosure sale to a third party and, accordingly, instructing the department that a Discharge of Mortgage should not be prepared and sent to the foreclosed borrower." Moreover, Marcano attested that "[n]either EMC nor Emigrant have ever had a policy of preparing or otherwise providing a Discharge of Mortgage to a borrower upon receiving proceeds from a third-party purchaser following a foreclosure sale."

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Emigrant Residential LLC v. Pinti, 134 F.4th 626 (1st Cir. 2025).

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