Miles v. Beneficial Massachusetts, Inc.

22 Mass. L. Rptr. 161
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedFebruary 12, 2007
DocketNo.200502371
StatusPublished

This text of 22 Mass. L. Rptr. 161 (Miles v. Beneficial Massachusetts, Inc.) 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
Miles v. Beneficial Massachusetts, Inc., 22 Mass. L. Rptr. 161 (Mass. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

Fremont-Smith, Thayer, J.

The plaintiff, Jean Miles (“Miles”), brings this action against the defendant, Beneficial Massachusetts, Inc. (“Beneficial”) alleging fraud, negligent misrepresentation, unconscionability, tort, infliction of emotional distress, violations of the Federal Truth in Lending Act (‘TILA”), 15 U.S.C. [162]*162§1602 et seq.; violations of Massachusetts Consumer Credit Cost Disclosure Act (“MCCDA”), G.L.c. 140D; violations of Massachusetts High Cost Mortgage Loans Regulations, 209 CMR §32.32; and violations of G.L.c. 93A. This matter is before the court on the Beneficial’s motion for summary judgment on all counts and Miles’ motion for summary judgment on the counts concerning statutory lending law violations.

BACKGROUND

The complaint in this case consists largely of vague, non-specific factual allegations which provide no coherent story. It is possible, however, from citations to the summary judgment record in the briefs to glean that the following facts are alleged, most of which are disputed by defendant. A mortgage was taken out by Miles with Beneficial on July 9, 2001. Prior to this mortgage, Miles had engaged in at least one other financial transaction with Beneficial. In October of 2000, she took out an additional unsecured loan for $8,500 with an annual percentage rate of 23.195%.

In June of 2001, Miles had credit card debts and was fearful of having her residence foreclosed. An agent from Beneficial informed her that, as a homeowner, she could consolidate these debts by obtaining a home mortgage loan from Beneficial on her residence. Just prior to the July 9, 2001 closing, a bank agent, “Phillip,” informed her that the closing costs for the loan would be $20,000. She alleges that Philip told her that if she did not pay this fee, he would not take the necessary steps to ensure the closing of her loan. She then asked Phillip the amount of his commission fee ($500) and said that she would pay that sum to him directly if he would make certain that the closing took place at a more reasonable closing fee. Thereafter, the listed closing fee was reduced to $9,938.61 but, before the closing, Phillip informed her that she would have to pay him another $1,500, in addition to the already promised $500, or he would not guarantee that the loan would close. Fearing that she would end up further behind in her debts, she agreed to this payment. On July 9, 2001, Miles closed on the loan for $232,896.65, with an APR of 10.281%, and asserts that, shortly after the closing, she paid Phillip the $2,000 he had demanded, in cash, in a parking lot.

Federal law requires that a financial institution give to a consumer a three-day opportunity following the closing of a loan and mortgage to rescind the transaction, and that it provide the mortgagor with written notice of this right. At the July 9 closing on her loan and mortgage, Miles received documents informing her of this three-day right to rescind. She alleges, however, that Beneficial’s employees pressured her to waive that right by having her sign these documents at the July 9 closing but post-dating her signature to July 13, so as to indicate that the three-day rescission period had already transpired.

Also at the closing, Miles’ loan was given a temporary number. On July 13, 2001, because Miles had not exercised the option to rescind, Beneficial assigned her a different permanent loan number, for which she was given no additional disclosure statements.

In addition to the above mortgage and loan, Beneficial transferred $8,000 to Miles sometime in the Spring or Summer of 2001, and claims that on May 15, 2001 Miles signed a Personal Credit Line Account Agreement for a revolving line of credit in that amount with an APR of 18%. Miles asserts, however, that she never entered into any such agreement, and that Beneficial made this transfer without her knowledge or consent, but that she only found out about it four months after she made her first payment on her mortgage, when an employee of Beneficial informed her of it.

Miles filed for bankruptcy in October 2003. Shortly thereafter, on November 17, 2003, she sent a notice of rescission of her mortgage to Beneficial. On December 8, 2003, Beneficia1 denied her request for rescission. Plaintiff then filed this complaint in Bankruptcy Court on December 3, 2004. Because the defendant would not agree to the plaintiffs demand for a jury trial, the Bankruptcy Court dismissed the complaint on procedural grounds with instruction to the plaintiff to refile it in this Court, which she did on July 8, 2005.

DISCUSSION

I. Summary Judgment Standard

Summary judgment shall be granted where there are no genuine issues as to any material fact and where the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Mass.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Cassesso v. Comm’r of Corr., 390 Mass. 419, 422 (1983); Cmty. Nat’l Bank v. Dawes, 369 Mass. 550, 553 (1976). The moving party bears the burden of affirmatively demonstrating the absence of a triable issue, and that the summary judgment record entitles the moving party to judgment. Pederson v. Time, Inc., 404 Mass. 14, 16-17 (1989). The moving party may satisfy this burden either by submitting affirmative evidence that negates an essential element of the opposing party’s case or by demonstrating that the opposing party has no reasonable expectation of proving an essential element of his case at trial. Flesner v. Technical Communications Corp., 410 Mass. 805, 809 (1991); Kourouvacilis v. General Motors Corp., 410 Mass. 706, 716 (1991).

II. Statute of Limitations for the Tort Claims

Although plaintiffs suit was not filed in this Court until July 8, 2005, the complaint had initially been filed in Bankruptcy Court on December 3, 2004. As the complaint in the Bankruptcy court was dismissed for procedural rather than substantive reasons, Decembers, 2004 is the operative date of filing for statute of limitations purposes. G.L.c. 260, §32; Carroll v. City of Worcester, 42 Mass.App.Ct. 628, 629 (1997); Liberace v. Conway, 31 Mass.App.Ct. 40, 42 (1991).

The alleged extortion of $2,000 by an employee of defendant occurred in July 2001. She was fully aware [163]*163of this action at the time she alleges that it took place, and as such any claims of tortious conduct in connection therewith is clearly barred by the three-year statute of limitations for torts. G.L.c. 260, §2A.

There is a dispute of fact, however, as to when plaintiff became aware of the alleged unauthorized $8,000 line of credit to her provided in 2001. At her deposition she denied knowing about it until four months after her first mortgage payment came due on August 13, 2001, i.e., around December 13, 2001. As her initial complaint was filed on December 3, 2004 in Bankruptcy Court, this was within three years of her discovery of the $8,000 loan (which allegedly occurred four months after August 13, 2001). The discovery rule “tolls the statute of limitations until a plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, that she has been harmed or may have been harmed by the defendant’s conduct.” Phinney v. Morgan, 39 Mass.App.Ct. 202, 204 (1995). See Frank Cooke, Inc. v. Hurwitz, 10 Mass.App.Ct. 99, 110 (1980); Catrone v. Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America, 929 F.2d 881

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Related

Frank Cooke, Inc. v. Hurwitz
406 N.E.2d 678 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1980)
Pederson v. Time, Inc.
532 N.E.2d 1211 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1989)
Community National Bank v. Dawes
340 N.E.2d 877 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1976)
Kourouvacilis v. General Motors Corp.
575 N.E.2d 734 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1991)
Flesner v. Technical Communications Corp.
575 N.E.2d 1107 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1991)
Cassesso v. Commissioner of Correction
456 N.E.2d 1123 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1983)
Liberace v. Conway
574 N.E.2d 1010 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1991)
Mayo v. Key Financial Services, Inc.
424 Mass. 862 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1997)
Phinney v. Morgan
654 N.E.2d 77 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1995)
Carroll v. City of Worcester
678 N.E.2d 1344 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1997)

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Bluebook (online)
22 Mass. L. Rptr. 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miles-v-beneficial-massachusetts-inc-masssuperct-2007.