Kinsella v. Capital One, N.A.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedNovember 9, 2018
Docket1:17-cv-05236
StatusUnknown

This text of Kinsella v. Capital One, N.A. (Kinsella v. Capital One, N.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kinsella v. Capital One, N.A., (N.D. Ill. 2018).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION DONALD J. KINSELLA and ) JULIE A. KINSELLA, ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) No. 17 C 05236 v. ) Judge John J. Tharp, Jr. ) CAPITAL ONE, N.A., ) ) Defendant. )

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Plaintiffs Donald and Julie Kinsella allege that Capital One misrepresented itself as the proper party to foreclose on the Kinsellas’ mortgage in order to fraudulently induce the Kinsellas to negotiate with Capital One to resolve the foreclosure matter. Capital One responds that by acquiring ING Bank—the bank that held the Kinsellas’ mortgage—Capital One became ING’s successor in interest and was entitled to foreclose on the mortgage; hence, there was no misrepresentation. The Court takes judicial notice of an Office of Comptroller of the Currency certification of merger showing that Capital One acquired ING, which disallows as a matter of law any plausible inference that Capital One lied about being the proper plaintiff in the foreclosure matter. The Kinsellas attempt to change their theory in their briefs, but that effort only highlights the implausibility of a claim predicated on Capital One’s actions. The Amended Complaint is therefore dismissed. BACKGROUND1 ING Bank, FSB (“ING”) initiated a foreclosure action against the Kinsellas in 2012. The Circuit Court of Will County (“Circuit Court”) entered a default judgment and order of foreclosure later that year. Am. Compl., ECF No. 30, ¶¶ 3–4. Consistent with those orders, ING scheduled a sheriff’s sale of the underlying property for March of 2013. Id. ¶ 5. The day before the scheduled

sale, however, the Circuit Court entered an order vacating the default judgment and withdrawing the sheriff’s sale. Id. ¶ 8. For reasons unexplained, the sale nevertheless proceeded as scheduled, and ING submitted a successful bid at half the value of the mortgage. Id. ¶ 9. Although the sale was recorded with the Will County Recorder of Deeds (“Recorder’s Office”), the Kinsellas were not aware of or given notice of the sale at the time. Id. ¶¶ 10–11. The certificate of sale that was recorded is a publicly available document that is reviewed by credit reporting agencies, lenders, and appraisers to determine a borrower’s creditworthiness and determine appraisal values. Id. ¶ 12. In July of 2013, ING, having become aware that the foreclosure sale had proceeded in violation of the Circuit Court’s order, moved to void the sale. Id. ¶¶ 13–14. The Court entered an order voiding

the foreclosure sale, but the order voiding the sale was not recorded with the Recorder’s Office. Id. ¶¶ 15–16. The Kinsellas allege that ING’s failure to record the order voiding the sale harmed the Kinsellas’ ability to obtain a loan modification and lowered subsequent appraisal values of the property. Id. ¶¶ 17. ING filed a motion with the Circuit Court in September of 2013 to substitute Capital One, N.A. as the plaintiff based on Capital One’s 2012 acquisition of ING. Id. ¶¶ 20–21; see also Def.’s Mem. of Law in Supp. of its Mot. to Dismiss Pls.’ Am. Compl., Ex. A, ECF No. 34-1, Office of

1 As this is a motion to dismiss, the Court accepts all well-pleaded facts as true and construes all inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Zemeckis v. Global Credit & Collection Corp., 679 F.3d 632, 634 (7th Cir. 2012). the Comptroller of the Currency Certification of National Bank Merger (“Certification of Merger”). So far as the record in this case reveals, the state court never ruled on that motion, but thereafter Capital One filed pleadings in the foreclosure case as “Capital One, N.A., as Successor by Merger to ING, Bank FSB,” including a motion for summary judgment that was granted in June of 2015 and resulted in another foreclosure sale order. Id. ¶¶ 22–24, 26–28. In or around August

of 2015, during negotiations with Capital One for a loan modification, the Kinsellas became aware of the second foreclosure order. Id. ¶ 32. The Kinsellas filed an emergency motion to vacate the order, which was granted in November of 2015. Id. ¶¶ 33–34. In a letter dated December 8, 2016, Capital One identified itself as the “Servicer of” and “Investor on” the loan (as opposed to the “Holder of the Note”) and notified the Kinsellas that they were approved for a loan reinstatement or modification. Id. ¶¶ 36–37, 45; see also Am. Compl., Ex. 3, ECF No. 30-3, Letter from Capital One to Donald J. Kinsella, Dec. 8, 2016. The Kinsellas allege that they did not receive the letter until January 12, 2017, by which time the offer contained therein had expired. Am. Compl. ¶ 38. Throughout the pendency of the foreclosure matter, the

Kinsellas have been negotiating with Capital One to obtain a loan modification, to discuss refinancing options, and to request the paperwork necessary to conduct a short sale of the property. Id. ¶ 29. The Kinsellas say that they were notified on multiple occasions that they had been approved for a loan modification, but Capital One refused to provide the approved loan modification terms, saying that it was merely the servicer of the loan. Id. ¶¶ 30–31. The Kinsellas allege that Capital One falsely represented itself as the proper foreclosure plaintiff both to induce the Kinsellas to continue negotiating with Capital One regarding the foreclosure matter and to obtain judgment against them. Id. ¶¶ 43, 46. The Kinsellas allege that they relied on those representations while attempting to obtain a loan modification and resolve the foreclosure matter, which prevented them from selling the home or refinancing or modifying the loan, damaged their credit rating, and diminished the value of their home. Id. ¶¶ 44, 47. In May 2017, the Kinsellas filed this action in the Circuit Court of Will County, Illinois. Notice of Removal, Ex. A, Compl., ECF No. 1-1. Capital One removed the case to this Court, premised on diversity jurisdiction.2 Notice of Removal, ECF No. 1. The Kinsellas filed, but

subsequently abandoned, a remand motion premised on the relationship between this case and the long-running state foreclosure action, ECF Nos. 20, 32, instead filing the Amended Complaint on which this case now proceeds, ECF No. 30. DISCUSSION I. Pleading Standard Prevailing federal pleading standards require complaints to contain allegations that, if taken as true, plausibly suggest that the plaintiff is entitled to relief. Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555–56 (2007). And to prevail on a common law fraud claim under Illinois law,3 a plaintiff must show that 1) the defendant made a false statement of material fact; 2) the defendant knew the

statement was false; 3) the defendant intended that the false statement induce the plaintiff to act; 4) the plaintiff relied on the truth of the statement; and 5) the plaintiff suffered damages resulting from reliance on the statement. Connick v. Suzuki Motor Co., 675 N.E.2d 584, 591 (Ill. 1996). To survive a motion to dismiss, however, a plaintiff is not obligated to plead “facts that bear on the

2 Defendant Capital One is a citizen of Delaware and Virginia. Am. Compl. ¶ 2. The Kinsellas’ complaints plead only that the plaintiffs are residents of Illinois, but the removal notice asserts, without contradiction by the plaintiffs, that they are citizens of Illinois. Notice of Removal, ECF No. 1, ¶ 7. Accordingly, and in view of the nature of this case, which involves a long-running foreclosure action involving the residence where the plaintiffs continue to reside, the Court is satisfied that there is diversity of citizenship between the parties. The complaints plead that damages are in excess of $500,000. Notice of Removal, Ex. A, Compl, ECF No.

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Kinsella v. Capital One, N.A., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kinsella-v-capital-one-na-ilnd-2018.