Federal National Mortgage Association v. Warm Springs Reserve Owners Association

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided January 3, 2020·No. 2:16-cv-02829·Unknown

Opinion

Federal National Mortgage Association, Case No.: 2:16-cv-02829-JAD-BNW

Plaintiff

v. Order Granting Motion for Summary Judgment on Federal Warm Springs Reserve Owners Association, Foreclosure Bar Claims and et al., Closing Case; Final Judgment Defendants [ECF Nos. 42, 43] ALL RELATED CLAIMS AND PARTIES Nevada law holds that a properly conducted nonjudicial foreclosure sale by a homeowners’ association to enforce a superpriority lien extinguishes a first deed of trust. But when that deed of trust belongs to government-sponsored enterprise Federal National Mortgage Association (better known as “Fannie Mae”), and the foreclosure sale occurs while Fannie Mae is under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and without that agency’s consent, federal law shields that security interest from extinguishment. That shield is known as the Federal Foreclosure Bar. Fannie Mae brings this action to determine the effect of a 2012 nonjudicial foreclosure sale on the deed of trust securing the mortgage on a home.1 Because Fannie Mae has shown that the Federal Foreclosure Bar prevented that sale from extinguishing the deed of trust, I grant summary judgment in its favor and close this case.

1 This is but one of hundreds of similar cases between lenders and HOA-foreclosure-sale purchasers that have inundated this district for the last five years. Background Fannie Mae, which has been under the conservatorship of the FHFA since 2008,2 purchased the mortgage on the home located at 346 Pinnacle Court in Henderson, Nevada, in 2002, along with the deed of trust that secures it.3 The deed of trust has been assigned to various nominees acting as Fannie Mae’s loan-servicing agents.4 The home is located in the Warm

Springs Reserve common-interest community and subject to its homeowners’ association’s covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs), which require the owners of property within this planned development to pay assessments.5 The Nevada Legislature gave homeowners associations (HOAs) a superpriorty lien against residential property for certain delinquent assessments and established in Chapter 116 of the Nevada Revised Statutes a nonjudicial foreclosure procedure for HOAs to enforce that lien.6 When the owner of this Pinnacle Court home fell behind on his assessments, the Warm Springs Reserve Owners Association (“the HOA”), through its foreclosure agent Alessi & Koenig, sold the property at a nonjudicial foreclosure sale on July 18, 2012, to the Ferrell Street Trust.7 That

sale recorded on August 3, 2012.8

2 I take judicial notice of this well-known fact, which no party disputes. 3 ECF No. 43-1 at ¶ 4. 4 Id. at ¶¶ 7–9; see also ECF Nos. 43-4, 43-5, 43-6. 5 ECF No. 43-3 at 13–15 (planned-unit-development rider). 6 Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.3116; SFR Invs. Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank (“SFR I”), 334 P.3d 408, 409 (Nev. 2014). 7 ECF No. 43-10 (foreclosure deed); ECF No. 43-8 (Notice of Default and Election to Sell); ECF No. 43-9 (Notice of Trustee’s Sale). I take judicial notice of all recorded documents in the record. 8 ECF No. 43-10. As the Nevada Supreme Court held in SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank in 2014, because NRS § 116.3116(2) gives an HOA “a true superpriority lien, proper foreclosure of” that lien under the non-judicial foreclosure process created by NRS Chapters 107 and 116 “will extinguish a first deed of trust.”9 But the Federal Foreclosure Bar in 12 U.S.C. § 4617(j)(3) creates an exception to that rule.10 This safeguard is contained in the Housing and Economic

Recovery Act (“HERA”, codified at 12 U.S.C. § 4511 et seq.), which went into effect in 2008.11 HERA established the FHFA and placed Fannie Mae under that agency’s conservatorship.12 Under HERA’s Federal Foreclosure Bar, when Fannie Mae is the beneficiary of the deed of trust at the time of the foreclosure sale and Fannie Mae is under the conservatorship of the FHFA, the deed of trust is not extinguished and instead survives the sale unless the agency affirmatively relinquished that interest.13 Fannie Mae filed this action against the HOA, its foreclosure agent Alessi & Koenig,14 and foreclosure-sale purchaser the Ferrell Street Trust on December 7, 2016—about four years and four months after the foreclosure sale recorded.15 Fannie Mae pleads quiet-title claims under

9 SFR I, 334 P.3d at 419. 10 See Berezovsky v. Moniz, 869 F.3d 923, 927 n.1 (9th Cir. 2017). 11 Berezovsky, 869 F.3d at 925. 12 Id. 13 Id. at 933; Saticoy Bay LLC Series 9641 Christine View v. Fed. Nat’l Mortg. Ass’n, 417 P.3d 363, 368 (Nev. 2018) (“Because Fannie Mae was under the FHFA’s conservatorship at the time of the homeowners’ association foreclosure sale, the Federal Foreclosure Bar protected the deed of trust from extinguishment.”). 14 The record reflects that Alessi & Koenig is in bankruptcy proceedings. See ECF No. 14. It has not participated in the motions at issue in this order. 15 ECF No. 1 (complaint). three theories,16 asserting that the Federal Foreclosure Bar or the tender of the full superpriority portion of the HOA’s lien by Fannie Mae’s loan servicer prevented the foreclosure sale from extinguishing the deed of trust and, alternatively, that Nevada’s HOA lien-foreclosure scheme was unconstitutional as the Ninth Circuit held in Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells Fargo.17 Fannie Mae also pleads alternative claims for breach of NRS § 116.1113 and wrongful

foreclosure that are conditioned on the failure of its quiet-title claims,18 and a claim for injunctive relief during the pendency of this case.19 Purchaser Ferrell Street Trust counterclaims for a determination that it bought the property free and clear of the deed of trust.20 I find that these competing quiet-title claims are all the type recognized by the Nevada Supreme Court in Shadow Wood Homeowners Association, Inc. v. New York Community Bancorp—actions “seek[ing] to quiet title by invoking the court’s inherent equitable jurisdiction to settle title disputes.”21 The resolution of such a claim is part of “[t]he long-standing and broad inherent power of a court to sit in equity and quiet title, including setting aside a foreclosure sale if the circumstances support” it.22

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Federal National Mortgage Association v. Warm Springs Reserve Owners Association, (D. Nev. 2020).

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