Mejia v. Partners for Payment Relief LLC (In re Mejia)

559 B.R. 431
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Maryland
DecidedSeptember 30, 2016
DocketCase No. 12-12090-TJC; Adversary No. 13-00501
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 559 B.R. 431 (Mejia v. Partners for Payment Relief LLC (In re Mejia)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mejia v. Partners for Payment Relief LLC (In re Mejia), 559 B.R. 431 (Md. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

THOMAS J. CATLIOTA, U.S. BANKRUPTCY JUDGE

Plaintiff and debtor Maria L. Mejia filed this adversary proceeding against defen-dants Partners for Payment Relief LLC (“PPR”) and Partners for Payment Relief DE III LLC (“DE III”) alleging violations of the discharge injunction under 11 U.S.C. § 524(a). Specifically, plaintiff alleges that defendants engaged in a series of actions intended to coerce plaintiff into paying her discharged loan. The parties have filed cross-motions for summary judgment as to liability only. For the reasons in this mem-orandum, the court concludes that DE III violated the discharge injunction by re-quiring plaintiff to reaffirm and reinstate the discharged loan as a condition for her to remain in her home after DE III fore-[434]*434closed, but before it took possession. The court therefore will grant summary judgment to plaintiff on that issue. The court will deny the remaining relief requested by plaintiff and deny defendants’ cross-motion for summary judgment.

The court has jurisdiction over this matter under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1334 and 157(b) and Local Rule 402 of the United States District Court of the District of Maryland. The court may enter a final judgment in this matter under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2) and the standards of Stern v. Marshall, 564 U.S. 462, 131 S.Ct. 2594, 180 L.Ed.2d 475 (2011).

Statement of Material Facts Not In Dispute

Plaintiff immigrated to the United States from El Salvador in 1985, and she is a lawful resident of the United States. At all pertinent times, she was self-employed as a housekeeper. She speaks a limited amount of English and cannot read or write in English, although she has friends or relatives who read and. translate impor-tant documents to her.

In September 2005, plaintiff purchased her home at 262 W. Deer Park Road, Gaithersburg, Maryland (the “Property”) for $284,000. She used savings of $28,000 and financed the remainder with first and second deed of trust loans. The first deed of trust loan was made by Countrywide Home Loans. The second deed of trust loan, which is the loan at issue here, was made by Intervale Mortgage Corporation in the amount of $49,650.

DE III acquired the second deed of trust loan on or about October 12, 2011. ECF 82-4 at 3 of 15. At that time the loan had an outstanding balance of $48,912.12 and DE III. purchased it for $2,880.92. ECF 82-4 at 13 of 15.

Defendants are in the business of pur-chasing non-performing deed of trust notes at a discount from financial institu-tions and attempting to turn them into performing notes. Defendants do not want to foreclose on the real property that se-cures the loan. Instead, they seek to have the defaulting homeowners pay the mort-gage loan. Defendants’ employees will communicate with the homeowner through mail, telephone, and with a “door knock service,” in which a private investigator goes to the home. If the defaulting home-owners refuse to respond or negotiate a payment plan with defendants, they use the foreclosure and eviction process in an effort to get the homeowners to start pay-ing on the note. The principal for defen-dants has stated:

Sometimes it just takes the reality of a foreclosure notice to get someone to en-gage with one of our workout specialists. Now, do we ever actually foreclose? Yes, but not that often. It varies from trade to trade, but on average we only initiate foreclosure on about 50% of all the loans we buy, and of that 50% we only fore-close on less than 10%. Above all we use legal as a tool for getting through to the borrower, and at the end of the day, everything we do is focused on keeping someone in his or her home. We find that these favorable workouts are what create the most profit on our end ....

ECF 84-6 at 5 of 12. Defendants teach their investors that the purpose is not to own the property, but to make the home-owners start paying on the note.

[T]he ‘shock and awe’ impact of this quickly executed series of touches with the borrower shows a sense of urgency that their situation has escalated to a level of seriousness that they are going to have to address or foreclosure WILL be inevitable. If I were to send a letter one month, make a phone call next month, it just wouldn’t have the same impact. If you don’t reach the borrower [435]*435or you have but you don’t know their intention because they do not under-stand the gravity of the situation, THEY WON’T EVER PAY YOU!

ECF 84-3 at 15 of 18 (“Nothing’s Happen-ing, Now What?” Jan. 26,2013).

Ms. Kathleen Dougherty was a workout specialist for PPR1 and she attempted to contact plaintiff from October 2011 through December 2012 to review debt repayment options. After plaintiff default-ed on the second deed of trust loan, DE III issued a Notice of Intent to Foreclose on January 20, 2012.

Plaintiff filed her bankruptcy petition under Chapter 7 on February 8, 2012. She received a discharge on May 16, 2012. Her schedules listed the value of the Property to be $183,600. Case No. 12-12090 at ECF 1 at 8 of 35. She listed the amount of the first deed of trust to be $261,254, held or serviced by BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP, and the amount of the second deed of trust to be $48,912, held by DE III. Id. at 13 of 35. DE III received notice of the bankruptcy case and notice of plaintiffs discharge.

In December 2012, DE III renewed foreclosure proceedings against the Prop-erty, On December 19, 2012, DE III filed an order to docket and further notice of intent to foreclose with the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland. On February 11, 2013, Cindy R. Diamond, on behalf of DE III,2 sent plaintiff a notice by certified mail of a foreclosure sale sched-uled for February 27, 2013. At the bottom of the letter, it stated in bold:

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO COLLECT A DEBT. ANY INFORMATION OB-TAINED WILL BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE.

ECF 82-10 at 2 of 3.

The foreclosure sale occurred on Febru-ary 27, 2013, and DE III purchased the Property for $19,000, subject to the first deed of trust lien. The deadline for filing exceptions to the sale was April 17, 2013, and plaintiff did not file any exceptions. The Circuit Court ratified the sale on April 22, 2013.

Defendants do not dispute that the value of the Property and the amount of the first deed of trust loan at the time of the fore-closure sale were more or less the amounts stated by plaintiff in her bankruptcy schedules, as described above. Accordingly, at the time of the foreclosure sale, the amount outstanding on the first deed of trust loan was substantially greater than the value of the Property.

On May 6, 2013, DE III filed a motion seeking possession of the Property. The Circuit Court entered a judgment of pos-session in favor of DE III on June 24, 2013. On July 2, 2013, a notice of eviction was sent to plaintiff, and she was served an order of eviction by a Montgomery County sheriff on July 20, 2013.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
559 B.R. 431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mejia-v-partners-for-payment-relief-llc-in-re-mejia-mdb-2016.