Laguer v. OneWest Bank, FSB

31 Mass. L. Rptr. 14
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedFebruary 27, 2013
DocketNo. MICV2010033353
StatusPublished

This text of 31 Mass. L. Rptr. 14 (Laguer v. OneWest Bank, FSB) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Laguer v. OneWest Bank, FSB, 31 Mass. L. Rptr. 14 (Mass. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Salinger, Kenneth W., J.

Lydia Laguer brought this lawsuit to challenge the mortgage foreclosure sale of her home. The Court ALLOWS OneWest’s motion for summary judgment and DENIES Laguer’s motion to amend her complaint because: (1) Laguer’s loan is not subject to the Massachusetts Predatory Home Loan Practices Act, G.L.c. 183C, and in any case federal law governing federally-chartered savings banks would preempt application of c. 183C to Laguer’s loan; (2) OneWest holds Laguer’s mortgage and has standing to foreclose; (3) Laguer cannot bring suit to enforce directives issued by the United States Treasury Department regarding the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP); (4) a bank’s unfair or deceptive violation of HAMP directives may violate G.L.c. 93A, and federal law does not preempt Laguer’s claims under c. 93A; (5) however, Laguer’s claims under c. 93A nonetheless fail as a matter of law because the undisputed facts show that OneWest reasonably denied Laguer’s loan modification requests after Laguer repeatedly failed to provide material information, and that the terms of the Note were not so unfair as to violate G.L.c. 93A; and (6) Laguer’s proposed new claim that OneWest breached its HAMP contract with the federal government would be futile because Laguer has no right to enforce that contract and because OneWest reasonably denied Laguer’s modification requests.

1. Undisputed Material Facts

Laguer never responded to the statement of undisputed material facts that OneWest served with its motion for summary judgment. She did not do so in the manner required by Superior Court Rule 9A(b)(5). Nor did she file any admissible evidence that contradicts the facts relied upon by OneWest. The Court therefore deems the facts set forth in OneWest’s statement of facts to be undisputed for purposes of its motion for summary judgment. Cf. Dziamba v. Warner & Stackpole, 56 Mass.App.Ct. 397, 401 (2002).

As requested by Laguer at oral argument, the Court has also considered Laguer’s February 11, 2011, loan modification application-—a copy of which is attached to Laguer’s motion for leave to amend her complaint— to be part of Laguer’s summary judgment opposition. OneWest does not contest the authenticity of these documents or the fact that they were submitted to OneWest, and did not object to the Court considering them in deciding the summary judgment motion. Thus the Court considers that application and supporting documentation to be “proper parts of the summary judgment record” even though Laguer did not file an affidavit authenticating them. City of Boston v. Roxbury Action Program, Inc., 68 Mass.App.Ct. 468, 469 n.3, rev. denied, 449 Mass. 1101 (2007).

Laguer’s assertion that she questions some of the evidence submitted by OneWest does not create any disputed issue of material fact. “[M]ere assertions of the existence of disputed facts without evidentiary support cannot defeat [a] summary judgment motion.” Bergendahl v. Massachusetts Elec. Co., 45 Mass.App.Ct. 715, 718-19 (1998), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 929 (1999).

Although Laguer asks to conduct further discovery, she neither specified what additional discovery would be relevant nor explained why she could not have sought that information before. The period for completing discovery ended May 1, 2012. Laguer did not seek any further extension. Nor has she filed any affidavit explaining why she is unable to present “facts essential to justify [her] opposition” to the summary judgment motion, as required by Mass.R.Civ.P. 56(f). Laguer’s “failure to file the requisite affidavit is fatal” to her assertion that she should be allowed more time to rebut the undisputed evidence presented by OneW-est. See Tetrault v. Mahoney, Hawkes & Goldings, 425 Mass. 456, 458 (1997).

The following are undisputed facts or reasonable inferences drawn from those facts. In evaluating OneWest’s motion for summary judgment, the Court [16]*16“must . . . draw all reasonable inferences” from the evidence presented “in favor of the nonmoving parly,” as a jury or judicial fact finder would be free to do at trial. Godfrey v. Globe Newspaper Co., Inc., 457 Mass. 113, 119 (2010). It has done so.

a.Laguer’s Note and Mortgage

Laguer and her husband Amado R. Lopez bought a single-family home at 4 Judith Road in Chelmsford, Massachusetts (the “Property”) for $422,000 on or about February 2, 2006. They borrowed 80 percent of the purchase price from IndyMac Bank, F.S.B., a federally chartered savings bank, and executed a promissory note obligating them to repay IndyMac $337,600 plus interest over forty years (the “Note”). To secure this obligation, Laguer and Lopez gave Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc. (“MERS”) a mortgage on the Properly (the “Mortgage”). The Mortgage and quitclaim deed that conveyed the Property to Laguer and Lopez were recorded on February 3, 2006.

The Note had an initial, teaser interest rate of 2.5 percent per year. However, the interest rate could change every month beginning a mere two months after closing. The Note set that variable interest rate equal to three percentage points above the twelve-month average of the monthly yields on actively traded United States Treasury securities adjusted to a constant maturity of one year, subject to a ceiling of 9.95 percent annually. The Note also gave Laguer and Lopez the right to prepay any part or all of the principal without charge.

The amount that Laguer and her husband owed each month under the Note changed substantially during the time prior to their default. At the beginning of the loan term their required monthly payment was $1,113.33. The Federal Reserve Board reports that as of April 2006 the one-year constant maturity treasury rate was 4.90 percent, and that as of December 2008— the last month that Laguer or her husband made any payment—that rate index had fallen to 0.49 percent.1 Thus, as of April 2006 the interest rate owed under the Note jumped from the teaser rate of 2.5 percent annually to the much higher rate of 7.90 percent, but by December 2008 it fell back to 3.49 percent.

Laguer has not provided any evidence of her and her husband’s combined income when they obtained their mortgage loan from IndyMac. Nor has she presented evidence of the fair market value of her home at the time she executed the Note other than the price that she and her husband paid for the Property.

b.Default, Assignment of Mortgage, and Foreclosure Notice

Laguer and Lopez have not made any payments under the Note since December 2008. IndyMac sent them a notice of default on January 31, 2009.

IndyMac had been closed by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision (“OTS”) on July 11, 2008, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named Conservator. The FDIC sold substantially all of IndyMac’s assets and liabilities to OneWest Bank, F.S.B., on March 19, 2009.2 Like IndyMac, OneWest is a federally chartered savings bank that is regulated by OTS.

MERS assigned the mortgage to OneWest a few months after OneWest acquired IndyMac’s assets and liabilities. This assignment was executed before a notary public on June 4, 2009, by Erica A. Johnson-Seck, who purported to be a Vice President of MERS. The assignment was recorded on June 30, 2009.

OneWest notified Laguer and Lopez in writing on July 8, 2010, that it intended to foreclose on the Mortgage because they had not cured their default. Laguer hired counsel to represent her regarding the foreclosure on July 19, 2010.

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Bluebook (online)
31 Mass. L. Rptr. 14, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/laguer-v-onewest-bank-fsb-masssuperct-2013.