Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation v. Margaret Wilson

702 F. App'x 827
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 12, 2017
Docket16-15369 Non-Argument Calendar
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 702 F. App'x 827 (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation v. Margaret Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation v. Margaret Wilson, 702 F. App'x 827 (11th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Margaret Wilson appeals from the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”) and Wells Fargo Bank N.A. (“Wells Fargo”) on their claim for ejectment and Wilson’s counterclaims for breach of contract, wrongful foreclosure, negligence, slander of title, defamation, invasion of privacy, and violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. On appeal, Wilson argues that the district court erred in: (1) granting summary judgment on the ejectment claim because (a) *829 Wells Fargo lacked authority to conduct the foreclosure sale of her home in its own name, (b) it is disputed whether the sale took place during the legal hours of sale under Alabama law, and (c) Freddie Mac and Wells Fargo were estopped from claiming a proper foreclosure based on Wells Fargo’s conduct; and (2) granting summary judgment on her counterclaims for breach of contract, wrongful foreclosure, negligence, and slander of title. After careful review, we affirm.

We review a district court’s order granting summary judgment de novo, viewing the material presented and drawing all factual inferences in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Brooks v. Cnty. Comm’n of Jefferson Cnty., Ala., 446 F.3d 1160, 1161-62 (11th Cir. 2006). Summary judgment is proper where “the mov-ant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). “A mere scintilla of evidence supporting the nonmoving party’s position will not suffice.” Allen v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 121 F.3d 642, 646 (11th Cir. 1997) (alteration adopted) (quotations omitted).

The district court did not err in determining that the foreclosure sale was proper. As for Wilson’s claim that Wells Fargo lacked the authority to conduct the sale in its own name because Wells Fargo sold the mortgage to Freddie Mac, we are unpersuaded. The Alabama Code provides that a note can be enforced by (1) the holder of the instrument, (2) a nonholder who is in possession of the instrument and who has the rights of a holder, or (3) a person not in possession of the instrument who is entitled to enforce it. Ala. Code § 7-3-301, A “holder” is “[t]he person in possession of a negotiable instrument that is payable either to bearer or to an identified person that is the person in possession.” Id. § 7-l-201(21)(A). A negotiable instrument that has been endorsed in blank is payable to bearer. Id. § 7-3-205(b). Moreover, “[a] person may be a person entitled to enforce the instrument even though the person is not the owner of the instrument or is in wrongful possession of the instrument.” Id. § 7-3-301. “Possession of a note payable to order and indorsed in blank is prima facie evidence of ownership.” Thomas v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 116 So.3d 226, 233 (Ala. Civ. App. 2012).

The undisputed evidence showed that Wells Fargo originated the loan and subsequently assigned both the mortgage and note to Freddie Mac. 1 In conjunction with the assignment, Wells Fargo endorsed the note in blank, but retained physical possession of the note and mortgage, and agreed to act as the loan servicer and document custodian for Freddie Mac. Thus, because of the assignment, Freddie Mac held legal title to the mortgage, and Wells Fargo possessed the right to enforce the remedies in the note, including the power of sale, as the entity in possession of the note. See Ala. Code § 7-3-301. Because the note was endorsed in blank, Wells Fargo was properly considered the holder of the note and of the power of sale in the note by virtue of possession of the note. See id. §§ 7-l-201(21)(A), § 7-3-205(b); Thomas, 116 So.3d at 233. So even though Wells Fargo only possessed the note as document custodian for Freddie Mac, ownership of the note is not required. See Ala. Code § 7-3-301.

*830 Wilson also claims that Wells Fargo’s agreement with Freddie Mac required it to fill out a form, as the loan servicer, to obtain the note from the document custodian in order to become the holder of the note. We disagree. To the extent Wilson argues that Wells Fargo lacked authority to foreclose in its own name because it vitiated its agreement with Freddie Mac, Wilson was not a party to that agreement and cannot raise a violation of its terms. See Dunning v. New England Life Ins. Co. 890 So.2d 92, 97 (Ala. 2003). Further, the undisputed evidence showed that Wells Fargo was both the document custodian and the loan servicer. A representative of Freddie IVfac and Wells Fargo testified that Wells Fargo had possession of the note and mortgage since the year it was originated. He further said that Wells Fargo would not have submitted a form since it already possessed the note as the document custodian. Thus, the district court did not err in holding that Wells Fargo had authority to initiate the foreclosure sale in its own name.

We are also unpersuaded that there was a genuine dispute of material fact about whether the foreclosure sale occurred during the hours allowed by Alabama law. Alabama requires a foreclosure sale to be held between the hours of 11 A.M. and 4 P.M. Ala. Code § 35-10-14. Freddie Mac and Wells Fargo presented the foreclosure deed, signed by the auctioneer, which indicated that the sale was held during the lawful hours of sale. Alabama courts have held that a foreclosure deed that contains recitals showing compliance with mortgage terms is “prima facie evidence of facts stated therein,” and the statements in the deed establish the fact and validity of the foreclosure sale “in the absence of evidence to show that the recitals are untrue.” Garst v. Johnson, 251 Ala. 291,37 So.2d 183, 185 (Ala. 1948). Wilson argues that the evidence showed that the statement about the time of sale was untrue because the auctioneer’s certificate of the sale said the sale took place at either 10:49 a.m. or 11:49 a.m. 2 Viewing this evidence in the light most favorable to Wilson, it merely demonstrated that the auctioneer’s certificate was ambiguous. Brooks, 446 F.3d at 1161-62. This ambiguity did not affirmatively show that the statement in the foreclosure deed was untrue. Garst, 37 So.2d at 185. Because Wilson failed to rebut the prima facie showing of Freddie Mac and Wells Fargo, the district court did not err in concluding that the foreclosure sale was proper.

Finally, we are unconvinced that the doctrine of equitable estoppel bars the ejectment action because Wells Fargo’s previous postponements of the foreclosure sale and continued attempts to work with Wilson to mitigate the loss “lull[ed] her into a false sense of security.” Under Alabama law, equitable estoppel is warranted when:

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702 F. App'x 827, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/federal-home-loan-mortgage-corporation-v-margaret-wilson-ca11-2017.