Maya v. Centex Corp.

658 F.3d 1060, 2011 WL 4381864
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided September 21, 2011·No. 10-55658, 10-55660, 10-55662, 10-55663, 10-55664, 10-55665, 10-55667, 10-55668·Published·Cited by 542 cases

Opinion

OPINION

B. FLETCHER:

This case arises against the backdrop of the national housing crisis. Nationwide, foreclosures are increasing, construction and purchase of new homes is decreasing, and home values are plummeting. 1 In some ways, the facts presented here echo national trends, but we decide a fairly *1065 narrow question: whether individuals who purchased homes in new developments have standing to sue the developers for injuries allegedly caused by the developers’ practice of marketing neighboring homes to individuals who presented a high risk of foreclosure and abandonment of their homes, financing those high-risk buyers, concealing that information, and misrepresenting the character of the neighborhoods. The district court held that plaintiffs did not have standing because none of the alleged injuries amounted to a concrete, non-conjectural injury-in-fact, and that there was no sufficiently strong causal connection between any injury and defendants’ conduct. It also denied plaintiffs leave to amend their complaints. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I.

A.

Plaintiffs are individual homeowners who purchased houses in new developments constructed by one of eight large national home-builders between 2004 and 2006. Each of them made a down payment of twenty-percent or more of the home’s purchase price. Defendants are some of the nation’s largest housing developers, and include the developers’ parent companies and subsidiary mortgage companies. Plaintiffs seek damages, attorneys fees and costs, and the option to rescind their home purchases due to defendants’ fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violations of California’s Business and Professional Code (CBPC). They also seek an injunction prohibiting defendants from continuing to engage in practices violating the CBPC or providing mortgage services or financing to buyers purchasing homes from defendants.

Plaintiffs claim that defendants represented that they were building “stable, family neighborhoods occupied by owners of the homes.” According to the plaintiffs, “[ijmplicit in this marketing scheme was that [defendants were making a good-faith effort to sell homes to buyers who they expected could afford to buy the houses and would be stable neighbors.” Nevertheless, defendants marketed the houses to “unqualified buyers who posed an abnormally high risk of foreclosure.” 2 Similarly, plaintiffs claim that defendants represented that they “discourage[ ] speculation ... [and] intended to sell homes only to people who will occupy them,” but sold homes to investors who had no intent to reside in the homes and were more likely to walk away from the homes in times of economic hardship.

Plaintiffs claim that these misrepresentations and omissions were part of a comprehensive scheme to increase defendants’ profits. They allege that defendants financed at least 65% of the mortgages on homes in their communities. Plaintiffs contend that by marketing homes to high-risk buyers, and by financing buyers who may not have been able to obtain other financing, defendants created a “buying frenzy” that artificially increased demand and home prices. They maintain that defendants’ marketing and lending practices were material information “related both to the value of their houses and the desirability of the properties.” They allege that “[i]f Defendants had made such disclosures, Plaintiffs would not have purchased the houses from Defendants and/or [sic] would not have paid an inflated price for the house.”

*1066 Plaintiffs aver that since they purchased their homes, “as was inevitable, ... these unqualified and high-foreclosure-risk buyers began to default on their loans leading to foreclosures and short sales.” Their neighborhoods have allegedly had “a number of foreclosures and short sales that have resulted in a substantial loss of value to the surrounding homes.” They allege that the loss was “much greater than if their houses had been located in a neighborhood where Defendants’ scheme ... did not occur.” Plaintiffs further contend that the foreclosures and short sales have “drastically altered” the “desirability” of their properties and neighborhoods, resulting in abandoned houses, multiple families living in one home, transient neighborhoods, and even increased crime.

Plaintiffs’ claims fall into two broad categories. They allege injuries that occurred at the time of sale: namely, that they paid more for their homes than they were actually worth at the time, and that they would not have purchased their homes had defendants made the proper disclosures. We will refer to these claims as plaintiffs’ “overpayment” and “rescission” claims. Plaintiffs also allege injuries that occurred after the sale: that their homes have decreased in economic value and desirability as places to live. We will refer to these claims as plaintiffs’ “decreased value” and “decreased desirability” claims.

B.

Defendants each filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the plaintiffs (1) lacked constitutional and statutory standing; (2) failed to allege their fraud-based claims with particularity as required by Rule 9(b); (3) failed to state a claim as to each cause of action under Rule 12(b)(6). The district court granted all of the motions to dismiss on the grounds that plaintiffs lack constitutional standing.

The district court, relying on three cases presenting similar facts, concluded that plaintiffs failed to allege a “concrete, particular, and actual injury.” See Kaing v. Pulte Homes, Inc., No. 09-5057 SC, 2010 WL 625365 (N.D.Cal. Feb. 18, 2010); Tingley v. Beazer Homes Corp., No. 3:07cvl76, 2008 WL 1902108 (W.D.N.C. Apr. 25, 2008); Green v. Beazer Homes Corp., No. 3:07-1098-CMC, 2007 WL 2688612 (D.S.C. Sept. 10, 2007). First, it held that because none of the owners had sold or attempted to sell their homes, any loss in the value of homes caused by the builders’ wrongful acts and omissions was “conjectural.” In other words, the loss in value could not “be ascertained, nor measured [against the initial purchase price] unless and until the owner sells the house.” Second, the district court concluded that both the decreased value and alleged overpayment had the capacity “to fluctuate with changes in the economy,” thus “strongly suggesting” that the injury was “conjectural and speculative, not actual or imminent.”

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Maya v. Centex Corp., 658 F.3d 1060, 2011 WL 4381864 (9th Cir. 2011).

658 F.3d 1060 (Maya v. Centex Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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