Lennox Industries, Inc. v. Caicedo Yusti

172 F.R.D. 617, 38 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1232, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6949, 1997 WL 271261
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedMarch 31, 1997
DocketCiv. No. 93-2613 (DRD)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 172 F.R.D. 617 (Lennox Industries, Inc. v. Caicedo Yusti) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lennox Industries, Inc. v. Caicedo Yusti, 172 F.R.D. 617, 38 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1232, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6949, 1997 WL 271261 (prd 1997).

Opinion

JUDGMENT

DOMINGUEZ, District Judge.

For the reasons set forth in the Opinion and Order issued on this same date, the Court enters judgment for plaintiff Lennox Industries, Inc., against co-defendant Caicedo Distributors, Inc., in the amount of $950,000.00, interest thereon accrued at a 7% annual rate from July 24, 1992, until full payment is made, and $95,000.00 in costs and attorneys’ fees. Judgment is also entered for plaintiff against co-defendant Rodrigo Caicedo-Yusti for the sum of all of the amounts stated above, since Mr. Caicedo personally guaranteed the obligations of Caicedo Distributors, Inc.

The Court orders the public sale of the property described in Deed No. 28, in guarantee of the mortgage note described in said deed, dated July 24, 1992, before Notary Public Roberto López García, to satisfy the payment of the note. The property is described in Deed No. 28 at paragraph 11, subparagraph A.

The Court also orders the sale at public auction of three out of the four properties described in Deed No. 29, also dated July 24, 1992, before Notary Public Roberto López García. The Court specifically orders the sale of the properties described in Deed No. 29 at paragraph 11, subparagraphs A through C.

However, the Court excludes from such sale the property heretofore described as the “Cerro Gordo property” and described in Deed No. 29 at paragraph 11, subparagraph D. On motion of an interested party, the Court will order the sale at public auction of such property after May 1, 1997, if Banco Santander does not file a declaratory judgment action on or before May 1, 1997, or otherwise upon the resolution of such declaratory judgment action, whichever is later.

IT IS SO ADJUDGED AND DECREED.

OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff Lennox Industries, Inc. (“Lennox”) 1 filed this diversity suit seeking to foreclose the mortgage it holds on certain properties owned by defendants Rodrigo Caicedo Yusti (“Caicedo”) and Caicedo Distributors, Inc. (“CDI”).2 Pending before the Court are three related motions: Lennox’s motion for judgment on the pleadings against Caicedo and CDI (Docket No. 11), Intervenor Banco Santander’s motion to intervene (Docket No. 12), and Lennox’s motion to dismiss Santander’s complaint (Docket No. 14). For the reasons discussed below, the Court denies Santander’s motion to intervene and grants Lennox’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. However, the Court will also stay the execution of the judgment pending a final resolution of the mortgage priority dispute between Lennox and Banco Santander.

I. Uncontroverted Facts.

CDI distributed Lennox products in Puerto Rico for a number of years. By the middle of 1992, however, CDI had incurred substantial debts with Lennox for merchandise received but not paid for. Specifically, CDI owed Lennox $388,962.01,3 and in addition had an outstanding balance of $523,-086.73, which was soon to become due and payable. Therefore, on July 24, 1992, “in order to secure the indebtedness previously mentioned, and any other amounts of principal and interest that will become due and payable in the future,” Mr. Caicedo and CDI entered into a pledge agreement with Lennox. Pursuant to this agreement, Mr. Caicedo gave his personal guaranty to repay “all debts that CDI [then had] or may have in the [619]*619future, including principal and interest, jointly and severally with CDI.” Mr. Caicedo also executed a mortgage note in favor of Lennox, in the amount of $150,000 at a seven percent annual rate of interest, which was guaranteed by a mortgage upon his personal residence (hereinafter, “the Deed No. 28 mortgage”).4 In addition, CDI executed another mortgage note in favor of Lennox, in the amount of $800,000 at a seven percent annual rate of interest, which was guaranteed by mortgages upon four separate properties owned by CDI (hereinafter, “the Deed No. 29 mortgage”).5

Soon thereafter, Mr. Caicedo and CDI defaulted on their debt obligations to Lennox. Relying on its rights under the mortgage notes, Lennox then filed the instant foreclosure action. However, when both Mr. Caicedo and Caicedo Distributors filed for Chapter 11 protection in 1995, the action was automatically stayed. Approximately a year later, the bankruptcy court approved the trustee’s reorganization plan and dismissed the bankruptcy case. Five months later, the plaintiff notified the Court of the dismissal of the bankruptcy cases, and indicated that it desired to continue pursuing its remedies in the instant case. On December 5, 1995, the Court lifted the stay, ordered that proceedings be resumed in this action, and granted Lennox sixty days to file dispositive motions. For various reasons, however, Lennox was delayed until May 11, 1996, when it finally filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings.

Twenty-two days later, R.F. Mortgage and Investment Corp. filed a motion to intervene and an intervenor’s complaint, in which it claimed an interest prior to Lennox’s in one of the four properties owned by CDI that are subject to the Deed No. 29 mortgage. The property in question is a two-story home located on an ocean-front plot of land in the Cerro Gordo neighborhood in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico.6 The Intervenor informs the Court that it has obtained a judgment of foreclosure against the Cerro Gordo property in a suit brought in the courts of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, but that the judgment has not been executed because of the pendency of the proceedings in this case.

On August 12, 1988, CDI had purchased this property from an unidentified party.7 At that time, the Cerro Gordo property was encumbered with a $99,500 mortgage in favor of Doral Mortgage Corp. (hereinafter, “the Doral mortgage”).8 On the same day that CDI acquired the Cerro Gordo property, the Doral mortgage debt was paid in full with part of the proceeds from a loan for $119,250 that CDI obtained from R.F. Mortgage and Investment Corp. The loan from R.F. Mortgage was to be guaranteed with a mortgage on the Cerro Gordo Property (hereinafter, “the R.F. mortgage”).9 The original Doral [620]*620mortgage was to have been canceled immediately and then to have been substituted by the R.F. mortgage as a first mortgage on the property. However, for reasons allegedly unknown to the parties, the parties failed to cancel the Doral mortgage or to present for recordation the R.F. mortgage until approximately four years later.10 The records in the Registry of Property therefore remained inaccurate insofar as they reflected the existence of a mortgage whose principal obligation had been extinguished, and failed to reflect the existence of the new, superseding obligation.

On July 15,1992, a Deed of Cancellation to cancel the Doral mortgage was finally executed before a notary public. Nine days later, on July 24, 1992, CDI executed the Deed No. 29 mortgage, which, as discussed above, covered four properties, including the Cerro Gordo property. The Deed No. 29 mortgage provides that the Doral mortgage was the first mortgage on the Cerro Gordo property because on July 24, 1992, the Doral mortgage on the Cerro Gordo property had not yet been canceled.

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172 F.R.D. 617, 38 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1232, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6949, 1997 WL 271261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lennox-industries-inc-v-caicedo-yusti-prd-1997.