Patera v. Citibank, N.A.

79 F. Supp. 3d 1074, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14065, 2015 WL 510891
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedFebruary 5, 2015
DocketCase No. 14-cv-04533-JSC
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 79 F. Supp. 3d 1074 (Patera v. Citibank, N.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Patera v. Citibank, N.A., 79 F. Supp. 3d 1074, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14065, 2015 WL 510891 (N.D. Cal. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS

Re: Dkt. No. 11

JACQUELINE SCOTT CORLEY, United States Magistrate Judge

Plaintiff Marci Patera brings this action seeking to prevent foreclosure of her home. She sues Defendants Citibank, N. A., and CitiMortgage, Inc. (together, “Defendants”). Now pending before the Court is Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. (Dkt. No. 11.) Defendants seek to dismiss Plaintiffs First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and for failure to join a necessary and indispensable party. After carefully considering the arguments and briefing submitted, the Court concludes that oral argument is unnecessary, see Civ. L.R. 7 — 1(b), and GRANTS Defendants’ motion to dismiss with leave to amend.

FACTUAL & PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff and her ex-significant other Roy Bartlett (“Bartlett”) purchased the subject property located at 308 Iron Horse Court, Alamo, California in 1999. (Complaint at ¶ 14.) The purchase was financed through a $1,000,000 loan from Citibank Service Corporation which was subsequently assigned to Defendant CitiMort-gage. (Id.; Dkt. No. 13-1 at 15.)1 Plaintiff and Bartlett subsequently took out two additional mortgages in 2004 and 2005 for $449,500 and $250,000 respectively, which were likewise serviced by CitiMortgage. (Complaint at ¶¶ 16-17; Dkt. No. 13-1, Exs. D-E.) The monthly payments on these mortgages were timely made for years. (Complaint at ¶¶ 14-17.)

In 2007, Plaintiff became physically disabled. (Id. at ¶ 18.) Nonetheless, the monthly payments continued to be made until November 2010 when Bartlett lost his job. (Id. at ¶ 19.) At that time, Plaintiff and Bartlett were unable to make their monthly mortgage payments of approximately $9,500. (Id. at ¶ 20.) Bartlett contacted CitiBank Private Bank of whom he was a customer to attempt to make “hardship” arrangements and thereafter submit[1080]*1080ted a “Hardship Assistance Package” in April 2011. (Id.) Two months later, the Director of CitiBank Private Bank, Vita Cusumano, sent Bartlett an email indicating that the loan modification had been approved and including key terms regarding a lower interest rate, forgiveness of all late fees and penalties accumulated to date, and stating that the new lower monthly payment for all three loans would be $5,996.93. (Id. at ¶ 21.) Bartlett told Plaintiff that CitiBank was drawing up the papers and had told him to make the new lower monthly payment on June 15, 2011. (Id.) However, Bartlett was unable to do so online, and thus sent an email to Ms. Cusumano asking for assistance. (Id. at ¶ 22.) Ms. Cusumano arranged for the payments to be debited from Bartlett’s CitiBank account instead. (Id. at ¶ 23.)

Neither Plaintiff nor Bartlett ever received the loan modification paperwork. (Id. at ¶¶ 23-24.) They both attempted to follow up with CitiBank regarding the loan modification and in September 2011 they were told that they needed an appraisal for the property. (Id. at ¶ 25.) A month later, Plaintiff and Bartlett were told that the loan modification was being submitted to CitiBank “upper management.” (Id. at ¶ 26.) Shortly thereafter, a CitiBank representative, Ms. Douglas, emailed Plaintiff and Bartlett with proposed loan modification terms which they agreed to and the paperwork was again forwarded to Citi-Bank upper management. (Id. at ¶¶ 30-32:) A month later, Ms. Douglas informed Plaintiff and Bartlett that they would need to submit a new Hardship Assistance Package which they did. (Id. at ¶¶ 33-34.)

In January 2012, Plaintiff emailed Ms. Douglas to follow up on the status of the loan modification, but did not receive a response to her inquiries. (Id. at ¶ 35.) Two months later, Bartlett informed Plaintiff that he had received a telephone call from Ms. Douglas indicating that the request for a loan modification was likely to be denied. (Id. at ¶ 37.) Plaintiff and Bartlett attempted to follow-up with Citi-Bank representatives including Ms. Douglas throughout March and April 2012. (Id. at ¶¶ 38-45.) In May 2012, Bartlett submitted additional documentation regarding his income and Plaintiff received confirmation from CitiBank that she had provided all the necessary documentation. (Id. at ¶¶ 46-47.)

Over the next two months Plaintiff and Bartlett attempted to regularly follow-up regarding the status of their loan modification, and in late July 2012 they were told that the loan modifications “looked good” and they had secured “preliminary approval.” (Id. at ¶¶ 48-53.) After much back and forth in October 2012, Plaintiff and Bartlett were advised that the loan modifications had been approved and the only question was whether they would be done as one loan or three loans. (Id. at ¶ 60.) Plaintiff and Bartlett attempted to followup throughout October and November, and then in mid-November, Plaintiff was contacted by a new unidentified CitiBank representative who told her they needed to submit another loan modification application. (Id. at ¶¶ 61-64.) Two days later, Bartlett’s attorney advised Bartlett and Plaintiff that he had received a Notice of Default which had been recorded on November 1, 2012. (Id. at ¶ 65.) Nonetheless, on November 26, 2012, a CitiBank representative informed Plaintiff that the loan modification had been approved and informed her that servicing of the loan was being transitioned to CitiMortgage and gave her a new point of contact there. (Id. at ¶ 66.) This new point of contact, Ms. Villanueva, advised Plaintiff and Bartlett that they needed to submit a new loan modification application. (Id.) That same day Bartlett’s attorney received another Notice of Default. (Id. at ¶ 67.)

[1081]*1081In January 2013, Plaintiff and Bartlett submitted a new loan modification. (Id. at ¶ 68.) After more back and forth including requests to resubmit documents which had already been submitted, on February 22, 2013, Plaintiff and Bartlett were told that CitiBank had all the necessary paperwork and that CitiBank would not pursue any further foreclosure. (Id. at ¶ 70.) Three days later Bartlett received a Notice of Trustee Sale, which was subsequently postponed. (Id.) Over the next several months, Plaintiff and Bartlett continued to follow-up with CitiBank and two more Notices of Trustee Sale were recorded against the property. (Id. at ¶¶ 71-72.) In October 2013, CitiBank offered a loan modification on the second mortgage loan only, but simultaneously recorded another Notice of Trustee Sale. (Id. at ¶ 74.) The following month Plaintiff was informed that foreclosure was imminent and her only options were short sale, foreclosure or repayment. (Id. at ¶ 78.) Three days later, Plaintiff was notified that they were approved modifications on all three loans. (Id. at ¶ 80.) Plaintiff continued to followup regarding the status of the loan modifications throughout December 2013, but she did not receive a response although a further Notice of Trustee Sale was postponed. (Id. at ¶¶ 81-87.)

The current status of Plaintiff s loan modification applications and the subject property is unclear.

Plaintiff filed the underlying action in October 2014 alleging thirteen state law claims against Defendants CitiBank, N.A.

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79 F. Supp. 3d 1074, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14065, 2015 WL 510891, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/patera-v-citibank-na-cand-2015.