Resolution Trust Corp. v. Buchanan

637 A.2d 1020, 432 Pa. Super. 135, 1994 Pa. Super. LEXIS 531
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 1, 1994
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 637 A.2d 1020 (Resolution Trust Corp. v. Buchanan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Resolution Trust Corp. v. Buchanan, 637 A.2d 1020, 432 Pa. Super. 135, 1994 Pa. Super. LEXIS 531 (Pa. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

POPOVICH, Judge:

This case involves an appeal from the May 26, 1993, order of the Court of Common Pleas of Monroe County granting the Appel-lee/Plaintiffs1 motion for summary judgment2 and denying the Appellants/Defendants’ 3 motion for summary judgment. We affirm.

As this Court has recently stated in Jones v. General Motors Corp., 428 Pa.Super. 544, 631 A.2d 665 (1993):

... a motion for summary judgment is properly granted only where “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Pa.R.C.P. 1035(b). In reviewing a motion for summary judgment, the trial court “must examine the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party.” [Citation omitted]

Applying this standard of review, the relevant facts are as follows: On February 25, 1989, the Appellants executed a promissory note for a $1,000,000.00 loan extended to them by Atlantic First Federal (AFF). The loan was secured by a first lien mortgage on lots 8, 9, and 10 situated in Monroe County, as evidenced by a mortgage executed by the Appellants on the same day as the promissory note.

With AFF’s insolvency on January 11, 1990, Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) was appointed as receiver for AFF, which became a newly-chartered federal savings association known as Atlantic Financial Savings (AFS).

On November 14, 1991, RTC entered a judgment by confession (amounting to $1,077,456.59, plus future costs) for the Appellants’ default on October 7, 1991. Thereafter, on January 22, 1998, RTC filed a complaint to conform confessed judgment pursuant to 41 P.S. § 407 (hereinafter “Act 6”) and Pa.R.Civ.P. 2981 et seq. Further, on March 29, 1993, RTC filed a motion for summary judgment alleging that there were no issues of material fact; it had provided the Appellants with proper notice per 35 P.S. § 1680.401c et seq. (hereinafter “Act 91”); and it should be granted summary judgment as a matter of law.

In response, the Appellants filed a cross-motion for summary judgment averring that RTC had failed to comply with the requirements of Act 91, in that it neither provided notice prior to confessing judgment nor did it designate any consumer credit counseling agencies in Monroe County.

After a review of the pleadings, the court entered an order granting RTC’s motion for summary judgment but denied the Appellants’ motion seeking similar relief. This appeal followed and raises two issues for our consideration: the court erred in entering [1022]*1022judgment in favor of the Plaintiff “where it failed to comply with the notice requirements of Act 91 prior to confessing judgment originally and where the notice sent subsequently fail[ed] to contain a counseling agency within the confínes of [Monroe] ... county where the mortgagors] reside[d].” See Appellants’ Brief at 5.

More particularly, as to Act 91 notice being delayed until after confessing judgment, the Appellants argued that the' failure to comply with such a condition precedent rendered the court without “jurisdiction” to act upon RTC’s motion for summary judgment; a fortiori, argued the Appellants, the judgment entered on November 14, 1991, was a nullity. Id. at 9 & n. 1. We find the argument to be disingenuous.

Our Supreme Court, in Bennett v. Seave, 520 Pa. 431, 554 A.2d 886 (1989), was confronted with a class action suit by the Appel-lees/Bennett and Porter against the Appellant/Mid-Penn Consumer Discount Co. for alleged violations of the notice requirements of Act 6 4 and Act 91, the latter of which was enacted in 1983 to establish an emergency mortgage assistance program to prevent the widespread mortgage foreclosures on residential properties which had resulted from default caused by circumstances beyond the owners’ control. Id.

With regal’d to the Appellees, their loans had been secured by notes and mortgages on the debtors’ personalty and residential property. In the case of Bennett, for example, the Appellant filed a complaint seeking recovery of the amount due from “all assets owned by the debtor other than the residential property.” As for Porter, the property which secured his debt was described “as household contents and ... his residential property.”

When Porter defaulted, a notice of intention to sue on the note was identical to that sent to Bennett. No evidence appeared in the record indicating that other legal proceedings had been initiated to collect the outstanding balance due on Porter’s loan.

The trial court held that the notices required under Act 6 and Act 91 were unnecessary to collect on personal consumer loans by assumpsit actions on a note which did not involve mortgage foreclosure. This Court reversed, holding that failure to comply with the notice requirements under either Acts would preclude Mid-Penn from instituting action against any assets of the debtors. Our Supreme Court disagreed and reinstated the trial court’s initial ruling. In the course of doing so, the Court wrote:

... Act 6 and Act 91 require that notice must be given before any legal action may be commenced to recover under a “mortgage obligation”, the crucial inquiry becomes what is encompassed within the definition of a mortgage obligation.
Act 6 defines a “residential mortgage” to include:
an obligation to pay a sum of money in an original bona fide principal amount of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) or less, evidenced by a security document and secured by a lien upon real property located within the Commonwealth containing two or fewer residential units or on which two or fewer residential units are to be constructed and shall include such an obligation on a residential condominium unit.
41 P.S. § 101 (Emphasis added). Act 91 defines the term “mortgage” for purposes of the act as “... any obligation evidenced by a security document and secured by a lien upon real property located within the Commonwealth including, but not limited to, a deed of trust and land sale agreement.” 35 P.S. § 1680.401(c)(a) (Emphasis added).
While it is clear from the comparable definitions of mortgage that the mortgages executed by the Appellees are within the scope of the acts, it does not necessarily follow that the notice provisions are appli[1023]*1023cable to legal actions brought under a promissory note executed contemporaneously with the mortgage documents when recovery is limited to a separate security interest in personalty. The debts assumed by the Appellees were secured both by granting a security interest in household goods and by executing a mortgage on residential property.
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
637 A.2d 1020, 432 Pa. Super. 135, 1994 Pa. Super. LEXIS 531, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/resolution-trust-corp-v-buchanan-pasuperct-1994.