Las Vegas Development Group, LLC v. Yfantis

173 F. Supp. 3d 1046, 2016 WL 1248693, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39735
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedMarch 24, 2016
DocketCase No. 2:15-cv-01127-APG-CWH
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 173 F. Supp. 3d 1046 (Las Vegas Development Group, LLC v. Yfantis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Las Vegas Development Group, LLC v. Yfantis, 173 F. Supp. 3d 1046, 2016 WL 1248693, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39735 (D. Nev. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANT WELLS FARGO’S MOTION TO DISMISS

ANDREW P. GORDON, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This is a dispute over property located at 9986 Otterburn Street in Las Vegas. The former owners purchased the property with a loan insured 'by the Federal Housing Authority (“FHA”) and secured by a first deed of trust encumbering the property. The property is located in a common-interest community arid subject to assessments due to the homeowners association (“HOA”). When the former owners failed to pay the HOA assessments, the HOA foreclosed. Plaintiff Las Vegas Development Group, LLC (“LVDG”) purchased the property at the HOA nonjudicial foreclosure sale.

After the HOA foreclosure sale, the first deed of trust holder, defendant Wells Far[1051]*1051go Bank, N.A., foreclosed on the property because the original owners failed to make mortgage payments. ■ Wells Fargo purchased the property at the foreclosure sale and then transferred it to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”). HUD later transferred the property to defendants Shirley Yfantis and Crystalia Yfantis. .

LVDG brought suit to quiet title to the property, claiming it has superior title through the HOA foreclosure sale. LVDG contends that under SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank, NA., 334 P.3d 408 (Nev.2014) (en banc), the HOA foreclosure sale extinguished the first deed of trust. LVDG argues the subsequent foreclosure sale by Wells' Fargo is therefore void, as are the downstream transfers from Wells Fargo to HUD and from HUD to Shirley.and Crystalia Yfantis.

Wells Fargo moves to dismiss LVDG’s quiet title claim, arguing that the HOA foreclosure sale must be set aside because allowing that sale to extinguish an FHA-insured loan would violate the Property and Supremacy Clauses of the Constitution. Wells Fargo argues that Nevada Revised Statutes (“NRS”) Chapter 116 violates due process because it does not require the HOA to provide notice to a first deed of trust holder prior to foreclosing and extinguishing the first deed of trust. Wells Fargo also' contends the quiet title claim should be dismissed because the HOA foreclosure sale was not commercially reasonable. In addition, Wells Fargo moves to dismiss LVDG’s claims for wrongful foreclosure, unjust enrichment, equitable mortgage, slander of title, conversion, and equitable conversion on various grounds. Defendants National Default’ Servicing Corporation, Shirley Yfantis, Crystalia Yfantis, and Evergreen Moneysource Mortgage Company join the motion to dismiss. (Dkt. # 16; Dkt. # 17.)

I deny the motion to dismiss with respect to the quiet title claim because the Property, Supremacy, and Due Process Clauses do not render the HOA sale void. Additionally, commercial unreasonableness does not support dismissal; I dismiss the wrongful foreclosure and rescission claims as redundant of the quiet title claim. I grant in part the motion to dismiss the unjust enrichment claim. I dismiss the equitable mortgage claim because there is no basis to impose an equitable mortgage. I deny the motion to dismiss the slander of title claim because it is adequately pleaded. 1 dismiss’the conversion claim as time-barred. Finally, T deny the motion to dismiss based on policy grounds.

I. ANALYSIS

In considering a motion to dismiss, “all well-pleaded allegations of material fact are taken as true and construed in a light most favorable to the non-moving party.” Wyler Summit P’ship v. Turner Broad. Sys., Inc., 135 F.3d 658, 661 (9th Cir.1998). However, I do not necessarily assume the truth of legal conclusions merely because they are cast in the form of factual allegations in the plaintiffs complaint. See Clegg v. Cult Awareness Network, 18 F.3d 752, 754-55 (9th Cir.1994). A plaintiff must make sufficient factual allegations to establish a plausible entitlement to relief. Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). Such allegations must amount to “more than labels and conclusions, [or] a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action.” Id. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

A. Quiet Title

Count one of LVDG’s complaint seeks to quiet title in LVDG against all defendants. (Dkt. # 1-1 at 11.) Wells Fargo moves to dismiss this claim, arguing that the HOA sale is void under the Property, Suprema[1052]*1052cy, and Due Process Clauses. Wells Fargo also argues the claim should be dismissed because the HOA sale was commercially unreasonable.,

1, Property Clause

Wells Fargo, the Yfantis Defendants, National Default Servicing,1 and Evergreen lack Prudential standing to assert the federal government’s interests under the Property Clause. Freedom Mortg. Corp. v. Las Vegas Dev. Grp., LLC, 106 F.Supp.3d 1174, 1180 (D.Nev.2015). HUD “is the best advocate of its own interests.” Id. (quoting The Wilderness Soc’y v. Kane Cnty., Utah, 632 F.3d 1162, 1172 (10th Cir.2011)) (emphasis in, original), HUD was a defendant in this action and disclaimed any interest in the property while retaining its rights against other parties to this litigation. (Dkt. # 57.)

A lack .of standing generally ends the analysis,' but some courts have suggested that “[questions relating to prudential standing ... may be pretermitted in favor of a straightfqrward disposition on the merits.” Grubbs v. Bailes, 445 F.3d 1275, 1281 (10th Cir.2006) (emphasis omitted); but see Newdow v. Rio Linda Union Sch. Dist., 507 F.3d 1007, 1041 n. 36 (9th Cir.2010) (acknowledging that some courts have reached the' merits without resolving prudential standing, but stating that “no court has ever bypassed a prudential standing question to rule in- favor of the party lacking prudential standing, but attempting to invoke the court’s subject matter jurisdiction as to the merits”) (emphasis omitted).

Even if I addressed the merits without deciding the prudential standing question, I would reject Wells Fargo’s Property Clause argument. HUD’s status at the time of-the foreclosure sale was as an insurer of a mortgage, which “is far too attenuated to reasonably consider the HOA’s foreclosure as disposing of ‘[property belonging] to the United States’ in contravention of. the Property Clause.” Freedom Mortg. Corp., 106 F.Supp.3d at 1182 (quoting U.S. Const, art. IV, § 3, cl. 2.) Unlike in Freedom. Mortgage, here Wells Fargo later transferred the mortgage to. HUD. Nevertheless, it is undisputed that at the time of,the HOA sale, HUD was only an insurer and did not own the property or the first deed of trust. HUD may have remedies against Wells Fargo based on applicable statutes and regulations if Wells Fargo did not transfer good, marketable title to HUD. See, e.g., 24 C.F.R. §§ 203.363(b), 203.366. But that transfer took place after the HOA foreclosure, .sale and could not retroactively convert HUD’s status as an insurer into a federal property interest under the Property Clause.

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173 F. Supp. 3d 1046, 2016 WL 1248693, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39735, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/las-vegas-development-group-llc-v-yfantis-nvd-2016.