Kristy S. Holt v. Calchas, LLC

CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 5, 2014
Docket4D13-2101
StatusPublished

This text of Kristy S. Holt v. Calchas, LLC (Kristy S. Holt v. Calchas, LLC) 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
Kristy S. Holt v. Calchas, LLC, (Fla. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOURTH DISTRICT July Term 2014

KRISTY S. HOLT, Appellant,

v.

CALCHAS, LLC, Appellee.

No. 4D13-2101

[November 5, 2014]

Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Joel T. Lazarus, Judge; L.T. Case No. 08-19406 CA.

Philippe Symonovicz of Law Offices of Philippe Symonovicz, Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.

Pascale Achille and Brian S. Vidas of Panza, Maurer & Maynard, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

CONNER, J.

Kristy S. Holt appeals the trial court’s order granting final judgment in favor of Calchas, LLC (“the bank”). Holt argues that the trial court erred by: (1) admitting into evidence a copy of the promissory note, mortgage, and assignment of mortgage; (2) denying her motion to dismiss for the bank’s failure to prove compliance with paragraph twenty-two of the mortgage; and (3) admitting into evidence the payment history over her hearsay objection. We find no merit in the first argument and affirm without discussion, but agree with the second and third arguments and reverse and remand for further proceedings.

The Pertinent Trial Proceedings

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., the original plaintiff, filed a mortgage foreclosure complaint. Holt filed various amended affirmative defenses, including the bank’s failure to give the contractually required notice of default, opportunity to cure, and acceleration of the amount due. During the litigation, there were two substitutions of party plaintiffs. The first substituted Consumer Solutions 3, LLC for Wells Fargo, and the second substituted the bank for Consumer Solutions. Eventually, a trial was conducted.

The trial proceeding was unusual. The transcript of the trial for the record on appeal begins in the middle of the bank’s direct examination of Holt. Apparently, the trial judge who began the trial recused herself shortly after the trial began. On the same day, after a recess, a second judge took over the trial and testimony resumed from where the trial stopped when the first judge recused herself. Additionally, the attorney for Holt, who represented her while the first judge was presiding, also left the trial, and a new attorney began representing her. The transcript for the portion of the trial conducted by the first judge was not provided on appeal.1

During the portion of the trial before the second judge, the bank’s asset manager testified, and the bank sought to enter Holt’s payment history into evidence under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. Holt objected to the admission of the payment history and proceeded to voir dire the asset manager regarding his personal knowledge of the document.

The asset manager admitted that he worked for the bank, but was testifying regarding how Consumer Solutions handled the loan before the bank acquired it. He testified that he never worked for Consumer Solutions and did not know who transmitted the records he was testifying about and had never seen Consumer Solution’s policy manual. He further testified: “And doing -- I believe that they -- the way I’ve done business in the past I believe they do things correctly.” He testified substantially the same with regard to his knowledge about how Wells Fargo previously handled the loan and admitted he never worked for Wells Fargo. At the end of the voir dire, Holt objected to the admissibility of the payment history on the basis of hearsay.2 Holt’s objection was overruled.

1 The bank argues on appeal that the original note and mortgage were admitted into evidence by stipulation during the part of the trial presided over by the first judge. Because a transcript of that portion of the trial was not made a part of the appellate record, and because we reverse on other grounds, we affirm on the issue of improper admission of a copy of the note and mortgage during the second portion of the trial without further discussion. 2 On appeal, Holt also contends the trial court erred in overruling her hearsay

objection to admitting into evidence a copy of the assignment of mortgage. The record is unclear and it is unknown if the trial court also admitted the mortgage assignment into evidence based on the business records exception. The mortgage

2 After the bank rested its case, Holt moved to dismiss the action on the basis that the bank did not provide any evidence that it complied with paragraph twenty-two of the mortgage. Paragraph twenty-two required that

the [l]ender shall give notice to Borrower prior to acceleration following Borrower’s breach of any covenant or agreement in this Security Instrument . . . . The notice shall specify: (a) the default; (b) the action required to cure the default; (c) a date, not less than 30 days from the date the notice is given to Borrower, by which the default must be cured; and (d) that failure to cure the default on or before the date specified in the notice may result in acceleration of the sums secured by this Security Instrument, foreclosure by Judicial proceeding and sale of the Property.[3]

The bank responded that there were at least two affidavits in the court file stating that it complied with paragraph twenty-two. However, the record shows that the affidavits were not admitted as evidence at the time the bank rested its case-in-chief. Holt objected to the affidavits being considered, and argued that, even if the trial court took judicial notice of the court file containing the affidavits stating that paragraph twenty-two was complied with, the court could not take judicial notice of the fact that the notice was mailed. The trial court implicitly overruled the objection and denied the motion to dismiss by granting the judgment. Holt argues that the trial court judge erred in admitting the payment history over her objection and in denying her motion to dismiss. We agree.

assignment was nonetheless admissible as a verbal act (discussed below), so we affirm as to that issue without further discussion. 3 Notice of the right to cure now is a standard clause in residential mortgages

required by section 494.00794(2), Florida Statutes (2014), which states:

Before any action filed to foreclose upon the home or other action is taken to seize or transfer ownership of the home, a notice of the right to cure the default must be delivered to the borrower at the address of the property upon which any security exists for the home loan by postage prepaid certified United States mail, return receipt requested, which notice is effective upon deposit in the United States mail.

§ 494.00794(2), Fla. Stat. (2014).

3 Legal Analysis

The standard of review for evidentiary rulings is abuse of discretion. Salazar v. State, 991 So. 2d 364, 373 (Fla. 2008). The standard of review for denial of a motion for involuntary dismissal at trial is de novo. See Sheehan v. Allred, 146 So. 2d 760, 764 (Fla. 1st DCA 1962) (“By whatever name it is called, [a motion for a directed verdict] is essentially a procedural device by which an issue made by the pleadings is withdrawn from the jury’s consideration when the evidence establishes without conflict that the moving party is entitled to judgment on the issue as a matter of law.”) (emphasis added); see also Charlotte Asphalt, Inc. v. Cape Cave Corp., 406 So. 2d 1234, 1236 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981) (citing Harnett v. Fowler, 94 So. 2d 724 (Fla.

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