HSBC Bank USA, National Ass'n ex rel. Registered Holders of Nomura Home Equity Home Loan, Inc. v. Estate of Petercen

227 So. 3d 640, 2017 WL 4280603
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 27, 2017
DocketNo. 4D16-3283
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 227 So. 3d 640 (HSBC Bank USA, National Ass'n ex rel. Registered Holders of Nomura Home Equity Home Loan, Inc. v. Estate of Petercen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
HSBC Bank USA, National Ass'n ex rel. Registered Holders of Nomura Home Equity Home Loan, Inc. v. Estate of Petercen, 227 So. 3d 640, 2017 WL 4280603 (Fla. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

Conner, J.

Appellant (“the Bank”) appeals the tidal court’s order dismissing its foreclosure suit and the order denying its motion for rehearing. The Bank argues that the trial court erred in dismissing the case based on unpled and unproven defenses of res judicata and statute of limitations. Although we agree with most of the Bank’s arguments on appeal, we need not address them in detail. Based on Bartram v. U.S. Bank National Association, 211 So.3d 1009 (Fla. 2016), clarifying the effect of prior dismissals on subsequent foreclosure proceedings, it is clear the trial court erred.

Background

On September 5, 2015, the Bank filed the foreclosure action below against the defendants, which included the unknown heirs of the homeowner’s estate. The complaint alleged a default under the note and mortgage “as of November 1, 2009, and all subsequent payments.” Thereafter, an attorney ad litem was appointed to represent the unknown heirs- and the estate. The attorney ad litem filed an answer and report on behalf of the defendants, raising the statute of limitations as an affirmative defense. Specifically, the affirmative defense stated that the action was filed over five years after the date of default and that the action was therefore time-barred. Additionally, the affirmative defense stated that an earlier foreclosure case brought by the Bank in 2011 had been dismissed without prejudice in May 2013.

Subsequently, the Bank moved to amend the complaint to add a party defendant, attaching a proposed amended complaint. The trial court granted the motion, ordered that the amended complaint was deemed filed, and gave the defendants ten days to respond to the amended complaint. No response to the amended complaint was ever filed by any'of the defendants, nor was anything further filed with the court on their behalf. The matter proceeded to a bench trial with no appearance for the defendants.

At the beginning of the trial, the Bank’s counsel advised the trial court that the answer brief filed by the attorney ad litem alleged a statute of limitations issue, and that there was a statute of limitations issue in the ease. He explained that the default occurred in 2009, and that a prior foreclosure action had been filed in 2011 but was dismissed without prejudice in 2013. He further explained that this second suit, alleging the same original default date, was filed in 2015, almost 6 years after that original default date. The Bank’s counsel argued, before presenting any evidence, that the appropriate remedy would be to recalculate the amounts of principal and the amount of fees at the five-year cut-off to bring the dates within the statute of limitations. The trial court noted that it needed more time to review the case law on this issue, but that it would listen to the Bank’s evidence that day. As such, the Bank proceeded to present its evidence and reargued its earlier position about the statute of limitations. A recess was taken, after which the Bank’s counsel presented the trial court with the recalculated figures bringing the amount due within the five-year limit from the commencement of the. suit. The trial court asked counsel to send it a judgment stating that there was a prior foreclosure which was dismissed and showing that the recalculated judgment amount was based on the case law argued by counsel. However, the trial court also noted that it would still be reviewing the case law before entering its judgment.

Three days later, the trial court issued an order of dismissal, stating that the Bank had previously filed a foreclosure suit involving the same property and mortgage, alleging a default as of November 1, 2009 and all subsequent payments. It noted that the first case was dismissed on May 3,2013 and that:

The dismissal of [the first case] which alleges a default on November 1, 2009, bars a subsequent suit on the same cause of action. Olympia Mortgage Corp. v. Pugh, 774 So.2d 863 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000); Singleton v. Greymar Associates, 882 So.2d 1004 (Fla. 2004); U.S. Bank National Association v. Bartram, 140 So.3d 1007 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014).

Therefore, the- trial court dismissed the instant case, finding that the Bank could not bring a second action alleging a default on the same date. ■ . ■

The Bank then filed a motion for rehearing, arguing that nobody had appeared oh behalf of the defendants at trial, and that there was therefore no evidence presented to support the statute of limitations defense which they had the burden to prove.' The Bank additionally argued that the first-action was dismissed without prejudice and that a subsequent action on that same date would not be precluded on res judica-ta grounds, which had not even been properly raised as a defense, nor was it barred by the statute of limitations because the entire debt did not become due upon default of payment,'but upon the filing of the first action in August 2011, which was less than five years before this second suit was filed. Alternatively, the Bank asserted that at least the suit would not have been barred as to the amounts due within the five-year limit,' where it had alleged a default of not only one date, but of “all subsequent payments.” The trial court denied the Bank’s motion for rehearing. The Bank gave notice of appeal.

Analysis '

Wé apply a de novo standard of review to issues of the application of res judicata and the statute of limitations. Aronowitz v. Home Diagnostics, Inc., 174 So.3d 1062, 1065 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015); Philip Morris USA, Inc. v. Barbanell, 100 So.3d 152, 157 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012).

• The trial court was of the opinion that a subsequent foreclosure proceeding is barred- when it alleges the same beginning default date alleged in a prior foreclosure proceeding -that was dismissed. As quoted above from the trial court order, the trial-court relied on and cited the Fifth District’s opinion in Bartram. Bartram dealt with- the statute of limitations defense.

As clarified by our supreme court in Bartram, issued a few months after the trial court’s dismissal of the instant case, the trial- court- erred. The Bank’s counsel, alerted the trial-court that the supreme court’s review of the Fifth District’s opinion in Bartram was pending at the time of trial, .but as discussed in the order of dismissal, proceeded to urge the trial court to adopt the position of the Third District in its -initial" opinion in Collazo v. HSBC Bank, USA, N.A., — So.3d —, 41 Fla. L. Weekly D933, 2016 WL 1445419 (Fla. 3d DCA Apr, 13, 2016), opinion withdrawn and superseded on reh’g, 213 So.3d 1012 (Fla. 3d DCA 2016), allowing a subsequent foreclosure where the complaint used the same beginning default date in a prior proceeding, but limiting the amount of the judgment to sums overdue within five years of the date the subsequent suit was filed. The trial court did not find the Colla-zo opinion to be persuasive authority, because it was not final and conflicted with existing case law in this District. Instead, as discussed above, the trial court dismissed the case. We note that subsequent to the trial in this case, the Third District withdrew its initial opinion in Collazo -and issued an opinion on rehearing, reversing its initial opinion and determining dismissal of the action was appropriate because a single date of default was alleged in the subsequently filed complaint. Collazo, 213 So.3d at 1013.

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Bluebook (online)
227 So. 3d 640, 2017 WL 4280603, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hsbc-bank-usa-national-assn-ex-rel-registered-holders-of-nomura-home-fladistctapp-2017.