Greene v. Homesales, Inc.

308 P.3d 279, 257 Or. App. 817, 2013 WL 4012849, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 948
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedAugust 7, 2013
Docket10CV0551; A151026
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 308 P.3d 279 (Greene v. Homesales, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greene v. Homesales, Inc., 308 P.3d 279, 257 Or. App. 817, 2013 WL 4012849, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 948 (Or. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

HADLOCK, J.

This dispute relates to interests that the parties may have in certain real property located in Josephine County— property that, according to plaintiffs pleadings, is or was his home, and from which one or more of the defendants sought to have him evicted. After giving plaintiff several opportunities to adequately plead his claims for declaratory and injunctive relief against defendants, the trial court granted summary judgment to defendants and entered two limited judgments dismissing plaintiffs claims against them. On plaintiffs appeal from those two limited judgments, we affirm.

The significant facts on appeal are procedural and undisputed. In his first amended petition for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief, plaintiff alleged that defendants — JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Chase Home Finance, LLC, and Homesales, Inc., of Delaware (collectively, “the Chase defendants”) and Northwest Trustee Services, Inc. (NWTS)1 — were “named on the Note, Deed of Trust, Trustee’s Deed, and other documents” pertaining to the property. In association with various pleadings, plaintiff submitted a copy of the pertinent note and trust deed showing that JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., had loaned him $234,000, secured by a trust deed on the real property at issue.

After defendants filed motions under ORCP 21, the trial court allowed plaintiff to replead, resulting in the filing of a pleading titled “second amended petition for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief; constructive trust; expunge mortgage.” (Capitalization modified.)2 In that petition, plaintiff alleged that Homesales was a necessary party because it had represented itself as the purchaser and present owner of the property; he alleged that the other defendants had “each played a part” in the foreclosure proceedings that he claimed were “wrongful.” Most specifically, plaintiff alleged that JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., was “the ‘Lender’ on the [820]*820Note” and “may have transferred the Note without notice” to plaintiff. Plaintiff sought a declaration of his rights under the “Note and Deed of Trust material to this case” and any other agreements or contracts that defendants might rely upon, and notice as to which parties might “qualify as real parties in interest to the Note and Deeds of Trust. * * *” Plaintiff also sought equitable relief, including a judgment “expunging the mortgage and quieting the title to [his] home. ***”

NWTS and the Chase defendants all filed answers that included the affirmative defense of failure to allege facts stating a claim for relief. Those defendants acknowledged in their answers that JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., was the lender on the note, and Homesales admitted in its answer that it was the present owner of the property.

NWTS subsequently moved for judgment on the pleadings or, alternatively, for summary judgment. In that motion, NWTS argued, among other things, that plaintiffs complaint did not describe a justiciable controversy because it did not “allege acts of wrongdoing by NWTS,” “show an actual and substantial controversy between Plaintiff and NWTS,” or show that plaintiff and NWTS had adverse interests. In addition, and in support of its alternative motion for summary judgment, NWTS submitted evidence that plaintiff had secured payment of the note with the property by granting a trust deed to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.; JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. later assigned the beneficial interest in the deed of trust to Chase Home Finance, LLC, (and that assignment was recorded); Chase Home Finance appointed NWTS as successor trustee to the deed of trust (and that assignment was recorded); and, when plaintiff defaulted on the loan, NWTS gave plaintiff notice of its intent to sell the property, and foreclosure culminated in sale of the property to Homesales in March 2008.

The Chase defendants also moved for summary judgment, arguing that “there [was] no evidence that the foreclosure of Plaintiffs home was wrongful” and adopting the factual assertions and evidence that NWTS had submitted in support of its own motions. The Chase defendants asserted that plaintiff had made only one claim against [821]*821any defendant in the case, i.e., that JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., might have transferred the note without giving him notice. That assertion could not form a basis for relief, they argued, because no Oregon law entitled plaintiff to notice that an interest in the note was being transferred.

Plaintiff opposed the defense motions, asserting that the “real question” was “where’s the note and who was the note holder at the time of foreclosure.” “Without that being clearly revealed and declared,” plaintiff argued, “there was no default and therefore no lawful foreclosure.” Plaintiff did not offer any evidence that the note had been transferred to another party, nor any argument tending to establish that any such transfer would have been unlawful. Nonetheless, he argued that he was entitled to a judgment declaring the parties’ rights.

After a July 2011 hearing, the trial court signed an order granting summary judgment to NWTS. On August 2, 2011, the court entered a limited judgment dismissing plaintiffs claims against NWTS.3 Plaintiff then filed a third amended complaint, largely raising the same claims he had before; as a basis for doing so, plaintiff purported to rely on an oral July 5 order by the trial court allowing him to replead.4 In addition, plaintiff requested a declaration of his “rights and status under ORS 86.770, and the Constitutionality thereof.”5 Plaintiff did not explain what significance ORS 86.770 had to his situation.

[822]*822On September 2, 2011 — and still based on what happened at the July hearing — the trial court entered an order granting summary judgment to the Chase defendants. The court entered a limited judgment dismissing plaintiffs claims against those defendants on October 20, 2011.

In November 2011, NWTS moved against the third amended complaint, noting that the court already had entered a limited judgment of dismissal of plaintiffs claims against it. NWTS argued that the allegations in the third amended complaint did not differ materially from those in the second amended complaint except for the added request for a declaration about the constitutionality of ORS 86.770 and plaintiffs rights under that statute. Accordingly, NWTS argued, plaintiffs claims “should be dismissed under the doctrine of claim preclusion” or for failure to state ajusticiable controversy. In response, plaintiff again argued that he was entitled to a declaration of his rights; he did not provide a meaningful response to NWTS’s preclusion argument.

The Chase defendants also moved against the third amended complaint on the ground that plaintiffs claims against them had “been fully adjudicated and dismissed on the merits” by the limited judgment entered on October 20, 2011. As in his response to NWTS’s motion, plaintiffs response to the Chase defendants’ motion simply reiterated his belief that he was entitled to a declaration of his rights; he did not address defendants’ assertion that the earlier limited judgment in their favor put an end to the matter.

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Related

Miller v. State
445 P.3d 371 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
308 P.3d 279, 257 Or. App. 817, 2013 WL 4012849, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 948, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greene-v-homesales-inc-orctapp-2013.