Fidelity Trust Co. v. Brennan

1993 Mass. App. Div. 230, 1993 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 90
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedDecember 27, 1993
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1993 Mass. App. Div. 230 (Fidelity Trust Co. v. Brennan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fidelity Trust Co. v. Brennan, 1993 Mass. App. Div. 230, 1993 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 90 (Mass. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

Sherman, P J.

This is an action in contract to recover payment of a credit card account balance owed by the defendants. The defendants counterclaimed for G.L.c. 93A damages for the plaintiffs alleged unfair collection practices.

The trial court allowed the plaintiff s Dist./Mun. Cts. R. Civ. P., Rule 56 motion for summary judgment on both the complaint and the counterclaim. The defendants now appeal the trial court’s subsequent denial of their motion for relief from such judgment.

The record indicates that after defaulting on their credit card payments because of financial difficulties, defendants Lawrence D. and CynthiaJ. Brennan (“the Brennans”) closed their Master Card account with plaintiff Fidelity Trust Co. (“Fidelity”) in February, 1991, and offered to make reduced monthly payments on their principal balance. Fidelity refused to accept less than the regular monthly payment, but did not object to the Brennans working with Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Eastern Massachusetts, Inc. (“CCCS”). The Brennans thereafter attempted to negotiate a payment plan, while Fidelity continued to demand full monthly payments. In early Spring, 1991 and again in July, 1991, Fidelity threatened legal action if full payments were not received from the Brennans. There is no evidence or averment that any payment was made by the Brennans during this period.

On September 9, 1991, a proposed plan for reduced monthly payments was prepared for the Brennans and forwarded to Fidelity by CCCS. Fidelity’s rejection of this proposal was received by CCCS on September 19,1993. On September 30,1991, Fidelity filed its complaint in this action for recovery of aprincipal balance of $5,160.21, plus attorney’s fees, interest and costs as provided for in the parties’ Cardmember Agreement.

CCCS resubmitted its proposal at the Brennans’ request, and secured approval of the payment plan on October 3,1991 from Fidelity’s counsel who stated that he would still seek an attachment of the Brennans’ house as security for their debt payment. The defendants’ affidavits contain conflicting averments as to whether the Brennans made their first paymentat the beginning of November or December, 1991. Fidelity filed its [231]*231motion to attach the Brennans’ house on October 18,1991, and the motion was heard and allowed on November 5,1991. The attachment was never recorded.

The Brennans’ answer of October 25,1991 admitted that there was an outstanding balance on their credit card account, but alleged by way of counterclaim that Fidelity had refused their payment plan offers and had pursued collection in an unfair, deceptive, unreasonable and harassing manner.

Approximately three months later, Fidelity filed a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment with timely and appropriate notice to the Brennans. In a supporting affidavit, Fidelity’s counsel asserted that at the November 5, 1991 attachment hearing, the Brennans had admitted that they owed the full amount sought in Fidelity’s complaint, and had identified Fidelity’s refusal to accept their payment plan proposals as the sole basis of their G.L.c. 93A counterclaim. The Brennans filed two counter-affidavits and amemorandum of law in opposition to Fidelity’s Rule 56 motion. Defendant Lawrence D. Brennan averred that $5,000.00 was owed on the credit card in February, 1991, but that the allegations of the defendants’ counterclaim created an issue of fact as to the amount then owed to Fidelity. The Brennans further contended that Fidelity’s unfair collection practices included “threatening a law suit and not filing it for some time,” filing the attachment motion based on a false averment that the Brennans had failed to make payment, and filing the motion for summary judgment after acceptance of the CCCS plan.

On January 24,1992, the Brennans appeared at court for the scheduled motion hearing. They now claim that after they requested a second call of the case, they were directed to the wrong courtroom and did not later hear their names paged to the courtroom where the hearing was held; that Fidelity’s counsel told the motion judge thathe did notknowwhere theBrennans were; and that Fidelity’s summary judgment motion was allowed in their absence.

Execution issued in March, 1992, and commercial property of the Brennans was levied upon in August, 1992. The Brennans paid the $6,247.43 judgment in full on October 13,1992. Thereafter, they filed a motion for relief from judgment pursuant to Dist./Mun. Cts. R Civ. P., Rules 60(b) (1), (b) (3), (b) (5) and (b) (6) which was denied, after hearing, by the trial court.

1. The Brennans have failed to identify any egregious or corrupt conduct, or misconduct of any kind, on the part of Fidelity or its counsel which could be classified as a Rule 60 (b) (3) fraud upon the court. See generally, Pina v. McGill Dev. Corp., 388 Mass. 159, 165 (1983); Winthrop Corp. v. Lowenthal, 29 Mass. App. Ct. 180, 184 (1990). Even accepting as true, Paresky v. Board of Zoning Appeal of Cambridge, 19 Mass. App. Ct. 612, 615 (1985), the Brennans’ hearsay assertion that Fidelity’s counsel told the motion judge that he did not know where the defendants were at the time of the Rule 56 hearing, there is no evidence that such statement was false, that counsel had seen the Brennans or actually knew that they were in another courtroom or anywhere in the courthouse,2 or that Fidelity in any way deterred the Brennans from appearing and opposing the summary judgment motion.

Further, in denying the Brennans’ Rule 60 motion, the trial court could have properly found that the full merits of the Brennans’ opposition to Fidelity’s Rule 56 motion were before the court in the form of their legal memorandum and affidavits. Although Rule 56 clearly provides for a hearing, but cf. Dist./Mun. Cts. R Civ. P., Rule 78, actual testimony at such hearing is rarely, if ever, considered. Makino, U.S.A., Inc. v. Metlife Capital Credit Corp., 25 Mass. App. Ct. 302, 318 n.6 (1988). It should be noted that while the defendants have appeared in this matter pro se, defendant Lawrence Brennan is a member of the Massachusetts Bar. He conceded at oral argument before this Division that all of the defendants’ arguments in opposition to Fidelity’s Rule 56 [232]*232motion were set forth in their memorandum and affidavits. As the Brennans were not “prevented from presenting the merits of their case,” Anisgard v. Bray, 11 Mass. App. Ct. 726, 731 (1981), their absence from the summary judgment hearing did not require, or constitute a compelling basis for, Rule 60(b) relief.

2. It is equally clear that Rule 60(b)(6) could not be properly invoked by the Brennans herein. Rule 60(b) (6) is “extremely meagre in scope”, Bowers v. Board of Appeals of Marshfield, 16 Mass. App. Ct. 29, 33 (1983), requires the demonstration of “extraordinary circumstances”, Henderson v. D'Annolfo, 15 Mass. App. Ct. 413, 425 n. 15 (1983), and is inapplicable where the grounds for relief fall within subsections (1)-(5) of Rule 60 (b). Bird v. Ross, 393 Mass. 789, 791 (1985). This is not a case where the defendants were deprived of legal notice of the plaintiffs motion and the hearing thereon. See, e.g., Chavoor v. Lewis, 383 Mass. 801, 806 (1981). Compare Bushnell v. Bushnell, 393 Mass. 462, 474-475 (1984); Struett v. Arlington Trust Co., 23 Mass. App. Ct. 152, 155 (1986).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Fleet National Bank v. Smith
1999 Mass. App. Div. 163 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1999)
Riccardi Wholesale Florists v. Rowe
1999 Mass. App. Div. 85 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1999)
BayBank v. Sullivan
1998 Mass. App. Div. 112 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1998)
Gill v. Flynn
1997 Mass. App. Div. 138 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1993 Mass. App. Div. 230, 1993 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-trust-co-v-brennan-massdistctapp-1993.