Friess v. Mortgage Law Firm PC

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedOctober 2, 2024
Docket3:24-cv-08180
StatusUnknown

This text of Friess v. Mortgage Law Firm PC (Friess v. Mortgage Law Firm PC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Friess v. Mortgage Law Firm PC, (D. Ariz. 2024).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Julie D Friess, No. CV-24-08180-PCT-DWL

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 Mortgage Law Firm PC, et al.,

13 Defendants. 14 15 Pending before the Court is pro se Plaintiff Julie Friess’s motion for a temporary 16 restraining order (“TRO”). (Doc. 15.) The motion, filed on September 30, 2024, seeks to 17 bar a trustee’s sale of Plaintiff’s home that is scheduled for October 3, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. 18 (Doc. 15-1 ¶ 2.) The Court has now reviewed Plaintiff’s motion papers and the other filings 19 in the record and concludes that Plaintiff’s motion may be resolved without a hearing and 20 without requiring further briefing from Defendants. For the reasons that follow, Plaintiff’s 21 motion is denied. 22 RELEVANT BACKGROUND 23 I. The Sedona Property 24 In 2003, Plaintiff obtained a $306,000 loan to buy a parcel of real estate located in 25 Sedona, Arizona (“the Sedona Property”). (Doc. 8-1 at 3.)1 The loan was secured by a 26 deed of trust recorded with the Yavapai County Recorder’s Office. (Id.) 27 In 2005, Plaintiff obtained a $359,650 loan to refinance the Sedona Property. (Doc. 28 1 All of the attachments to Doc. 8 are judicially noticeable. 1 8-2 at 3.) That loan was also secured by a deed of trust recorded with the Yavapai County 2 Recorder’s Office. (Id.) 3 Over the years, the deed of trust was assigned to various servicers. (Docs. 8-3, 8-4, 4 8-5, 8-6.) 5 On October 16, 2019, the loan servicer at the time, Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing 6 d/b/a/ NewRez, LLC (“Shellpoint”), “referred the loan to an attorney . . . to commence 7 foreclosure.” (Doc. 8-7 at 18.) 8 II. The 2021 Lawsuit 9 On May 7, 2021, Plaintiff filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the 10 District of Arizona that was captioned Friess v. Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, 21-cv- 11 08101-GMS. (Doc. 8-7.) Among other things, Plaintiff alleged in that action that 12 Shellpoint was “the current beneficiary” and “the current servicer” of the loan secured by 13 the 2005 deed of trust and that “due to Shellpoint not providing [certain requested records], 14 [Plaintiff] has been unable to . . . properly assess the accuracy, or lack thereof, of 15 Shellpoint’s accounting regarding the amounts owed, including but not limited to, 16 assessing the legitimacy of various actions taken by Shellpoint in connection with servicing 17 the Loan.” (Id. ¶¶ 7-9, 25.) Plaintiff added: “Due to being unable to bring her account 18 current, [Plaintiff] is forced to continue living in fear that she may lose her property through 19 foreclosure efforts . . . .” (Id. ¶ 28.) Based on those allegations, Plaintiff asserted claims 20 against Shellpoint for violating various provisions of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures 21 Act (“RESPA”). (Id. ¶¶ 31-34.) 22 On March 10, 2022, Chief Judge Snow dismissed Plaintiff’s complaint for failure 23 to state a claim, with leave to amend, and ordered that failure to file an amended complaint 24 within 30 days would result in dismissal with prejudice without further notice. (Doc. 8-8 25 at 3-11.) 26 On April 13, 2022, after Plaintiff failed to timely file an amended complaint, the 27 Clerk entered judgment in Shellpoint’s favor and dismissed the case with prejudice. (Id. 28 at 2.) 1 III. The 2022 Notice Of Trustee’s Sale 2 On July 22, 2022, Shellpoint recorded a notice of trustee’s sale with the Yavapai 3 County Recorder’s Office. (Doc. 8-9.) It announced that a trustee’s sale of the Sedona 4 Property was scheduled for October 31, 2022. (Id. at 2.) 5 III. The 2022 Lawsuit 6 On August 18, 2022, Plaintiff filed a lawsuit in Yavapai County Superior Court 7 captioned Friess v. Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing et al., Case No. V1300-CV-202280209. 8 (Doc. 8-10.) It consisted of one lengthy paragraph and set forth a wide array of claims— 9 including many of the same claims and theories that Plaintiff has reasserted in this case— 10 but alleged few, if any, nonconclusory facts. (Id.) 11 Following Plaintiff’s filing of the second lawsuit, the trustee’s sale scheduled for 12 October 21, 2022 did not go forward. 13 On February 21, 2023, the Yavapai County Superior Court dismissed Shellpoint (as 14 well as several other defendants) from the second lawsuit for failure to serve. (Doc. 8-11.) 15 IV. The 2024 Notice Of Trustee’s Sale 16 On July 1, 2024, Shellpoint recorded another notice of trustee’s sale with the 17 Yavapai County Recorder’s Office. (Doc. 8-12.) It announced that a trustee’s sale of the 18 Sedona Property was scheduled for October 3, 2024. (Id. at 2.) 19 V. This Lawsuit 20 On August 12, 2024, Plaintiff filed a complaint in Yavapai County Superior Court. 21 (Doc. 1-1 at 3-59.) The introductory paragraph of the complaint asks the court, “pursuant 22 to Rule 65, Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, to issue a court order to stop all foreclosure 23 proceedings to [the Sedona Property] where she resides and to issue a temporary restraining 24 order (TRO), preliminary injunction, permanent injunction, restitution, sanctions, and 25 damages as it sees fit.” (Id. at 3-4 ¶ 1.) The complaint goes on to question the legitimacy 26 of the notice of trustee’s sale because (a) “MERS does not have authority to assign this 27 deed of trust”; (b) the name of the trustor was not written “in capital letters and . . . exactly 28 as shown on the deed of trust”; (c) “American Brokers Conduit has been defunct since 1 2007,” meaning “[t]his is a fraudulent/fake assignment and foreclosure”; and (d) certain 2 assignments of the deed of trust were the product of “notary, and signature FRAUD” 3 because two documents are signed by Cynthia M. Brock but the two signatures are 4 different. (Id. at 4-6 ¶ 3(i)-(iv).) The complaint further alleges that the foreclosure 5 proceedings began in 2019 at a time when Plaintiff “had approved a repayment plan with 6 the borrower” and “was currently paying on her repayment plan following a forbearance 7 from a trauma and severe illness for three months but [Shellpoint] refused to stop the 8 foreclosure action.” (Id. at 6-7 ¶ 3(iv)(d).) The complaint further alleges that after Plaintiff 9 filed a TRO action in January 2020, Shellpoint’s attorney “cancelled the foreclosure one 10 week prior to the auction while laughing on the phone at [Plaintiff], and making fun of her” 11 and another attorney told her that “‘accidentally’ foreclosing on anyone in the state of 12 Arizona is not even a tort, so he ‘really didn’t care what happened.’” (Id.) The complaint 13 then alleges that a January 8, 2024 assignment of Plaintiff’s loan was “fake,” in part 14 because the notary public did not confirm “the truthfulness, accuracy, or validity of the 15 document.” (Id. at 7-8 ¶ 3(iv)(e)-(i).) The complaint then appears to identify various 16 purported deficiencies with the assignment of deed of trust, which seem to focus on clerical 17 details, for example, whether Plaintiff’s name appeared in all capital letters and included 18 the descriptor “An Unmarried Woman.” (Id. at 9-11 ¶ 3(v)-(xiii).) An “Addendum” 19 restates this list and alleges (in seemingly contradictory terms) that the Sedona Property 20 “has already been paid off” and “was in active loss mitigation, in default, so it could not be 21 sent to foreclosure and sold, that is not legal, it’s called double-tracking.” (Id. at 50-54.) 22 Based on these allegations, the complaint appears to assert, with less-than-ideal 23 clarity, at least the following claims: (1) “Conspiracy against rights—18 U.S Code § 241” 24 (id. at 19 ¶ 37), which Plaintiff later clarifies is directed toward Judge Linda Wallace of the 25 Yavapai County Superior Court (id. at 33 ¶ 91); (2) “Debt Collection Validity” pursuant to 26 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(b) (id.

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Friess v. Mortgage Law Firm PC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/friess-v-mortgage-law-firm-pc-azd-2024.