Singhal v. Unison Agreement Corp.

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedMarch 31, 2023
Docket0:22-cv-60656
StatusUnknown

This text of Singhal v. Unison Agreement Corp. (Singhal v. Unison Agreement Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Singhal v. Unison Agreement Corp., (S.D. Fla. 2023).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

CASE NO.: 22-60656-CIV-SINGHAL

RADHEY LAL SINGHAL, et al.,

Plaintiffs,

v.

UNISON AGREEMENT CORP.,

Defendant. __________________________________________/

ORDER

THIS CAUSE is before the Court on the Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint (DE [35]) and Defendant’s Request for Judicial Notice in Support of its Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint (“Request for Judicial Notice”) (DE [36]), which is unopposed. Plaintiffs filed their Response to Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (DE [37]). Defendant filed a subsequent reply (DE [38]). Accordingly, the matters are ripe for review. I. BACKGROUND This matter was removed from the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, Florida on March 31, 2022. Plaintiffs Radhey Lal Singhal, Nirmala Singhal, Niraj Singhal, and Vanessa Singhal (“Plaintiffs”) filed an Amended Complaint (DE [30]) on May 18, 2022, which is the subject of the instant motion to dismiss. In 2019, Plaintiffs entered into a contract with Defendant Unison Agreement Corp. (“Unison”), a residential equity company, which purports to help homeowners unlock the equity in their real property without incurring debt. Plaintiffs allege Unison’s website claims it is an alternative to home loans because it provides homeowners with upfront cash payments in exchange for the appreciation value when the real property is sold. (Am. Compl. (DE [30]) ¶¶ 17–22). Plaintiffs executed the Memorandum of Unison Homeowner Agreement (DE [30-1]) and Unison Homeowner Mortgage and Security Agreement (DE [30-2]) on February 4, 2019, in the amount of $123,750.00. Id. ¶¶ 31–33. Plaintiffs allege Unison falsely claimed that

homeowners would have the ability to buyout at anytime without penalty but refused to accept payment in 2021. Id. ¶¶ 24, 34, 36. Instead, Unison demanded $324,750.00 as loan payoff, which exceeded the 18% interest per annum. Id. at 37; see also (DE [30-3]). Before filing their initial complaint in state court, Plaintiffs served Unison with a demand letter seeking a loan payoff within the bounds of Florida’s usury law. Plaintiffs’ five-count Amended Complaint (DE [30]) asserts claims for declaratory relief (Count I), usury (Count II), quiet title (Count III), rescission (Count IV), and unconscionable contract (Count V).1 Plaintiffs also seek punitive damages against Unison. Unison moves to dismiss on all counts arguing the Plaintiffs have failed to state

a claim. Additionally, Unison has requested judicial notice of the Unison HomeOwner Option Agreement (DE [36-1]), the Unison HomeOwner Covenant Agreement (DE [36- 2])2, and Plaintiff Niraj Singhal’s Real Estate Broker Registration (DE [36-3]), in support of the instant motion to dismiss (DE [35]).

1 In their original Complaint (DE]), Plaintiffs had two additional claims for slander of title and truth in lending. 2 This Court will collectively refer to the Memorandum of Unison HomeOwner Agreement (DE [30-1]), the Unison HomeOwner Mortgage and Security Agreement (DE [30-2]), the Unison HomeOwner Option Agreement (DE [36-1]), and the Unison HomeOwner Covenant Agreement (DE [36-2]), as the Agreements. II. LEGAL STANDARD At the pleading stage, a complaint must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing the [plaintiff] is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a). Although Rule 8(a) does not require “detailed factual allegations,” it does require “more than labels and conclusions[;] . . . a formulaic recitation of the cause of action will not do.” Bell Atl. Corp.

v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007). To survive a motion to dismiss, “factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level” and must be sufficient “to state a claim for relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 555. “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). In considering a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, the court’s review is generally “limited to the four corners of the complaint.” Wilchombe v. TeeVee Toons, Inc., 555 F.3d 949, 959 (11th Cir. 2009) (quoting St. George v. Pinellas Cty., 285 F.3d 1334, 1337 (11th

Cir. 2002)). The court must review the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and it must generally accept the plaintiff’s well-pleaded facts as true. Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73 (1984); Am. United Life Ins. Co. v. Martinez, 480 F.3d 1043, 1057 (11th Cir. 2007). However, pleadings that “are no more than conclusions are not entitled to the assumption of truth. While legal conclusions can provide the framework of a complaint, they must be supported by factual allegations.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679. Rule 9(b), however, contains a “heightened pleading standard:” a plaintiff “alleging fraud or mistake . . . must state with particularity the circumstances constituting fraud or mistake.” ADA v. Cigna Corp., 605 F.3d 1283, 1291 (11th Cir. 2010) (internal quotations omitted). “[P]ursuant to Rule 9(b), a plaintiff must allege: ‘(1) the precise statements, documents, or misrepresentations made; (2) the time, place, and person responsible for the statement; (3) the content and manner in which these statements misled the Plaintiffs; and (4) what the defendants gained by the alleged fraud.’” Id. (quoting Brooks v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Fla., Inc., 116 F.3d 1364, 1380–81 (11th Cir. 1997)). “At bottom,

the purpose of particularity pleading is to alert defendants to their precise misconduct and protect them against baseless charges of fraudulent behavior.” Drummond v. Zimmerman, 454 F. Supp. 3d 1210, 1216 (S.D. Fla. 2020) (citations omitted). III. REQUEST FOR JUDICIAL NOTICE “The district court may only grant a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss where it is demonstrated ‘beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.’” Day v. Taylor, 400 F.3d 1272, 1275 (11th Cir. 2005) (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45–46 (1957). “Although the threshold is ‘exceedingly low’ for a complaint to survive a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim,

Ancata v. Prison Health Services, Inc., 769 F.2d 700, 703 (11th Cir. 1985), a court may nonetheless dismiss a complaint on a dispositive issue of law.” Id. (citing Marshall Cnty. Bd. of Educ. v. Marshall Cnty. Gas Dist., 992 F.2d 1171, 1174 (11th Cir. 1993). For purposes of Rule 12(b)(6) review, a court generally may not look beyond the pleadings. See Garcia v. Copenhaver, Bell & Assocs., M.D.’s, P.A., 104 F.3d 1256, 1266 n.11 (11th Cir. 1997). “The district court generally must convert a motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment if it considers materials outside the complaint.” Day, 400 F.3d at 1275–76 (citing Fed. R. Civ. P.

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