St. Jean v. Racal Mortgage

952 F. Supp. 22, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 809, 1997 WL 35294
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maine
DecidedJanuary 22, 1997
DocketCivil 95-416-P-C
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 952 F. Supp. 22 (St. Jean v. Racal Mortgage) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Jean v. Racal Mortgage, 952 F. Supp. 22, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 809, 1997 WL 35294 (D. Me. 1997).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

GENE CARTER, District Judge.

The Court now has before it four motions for summary judgment: Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment against Kathleen and Gregg Bullock (Docket No. 3); Plaintiffs Kathleen and Gregg Bullock, and Robin and Stephen St. Jean’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on Defendants’ fifth affirmative defense (Docket No. 9); Defendants’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (Docket No. 19); Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on Defendants’ Remaining Affirmative Defenses (Docket Nos. 29 and 30). The parties contest a number of facts in the record. After reviewing the depositions, deposition exhibits, affidavits, and pleadings on file, the Court concludes that none of the parties’ factual disputes is material to the resolution of this case. The Court will deal with each motion in turn.

I. FACTS

The Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection is responsible for administering and enforcing the provisions of the Maine Consumer Credit Code. 9-A M.R.S.A. § 1-101 et seq. In 1991, Racal Mortgage, Inc. (“Racal”) registered with the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection as a Credit Services Organization (“CSO”). M. Kilbreth Dep. at 28. Racal’s registration to do business as a CSO in Maine was renewed each year through 1994. M. Kilbreth Dep. at 20.

In October 1991, Racal was notified by the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection that an advertisement it had placed in the Portland Press Herald noting that it was an “Equal Housing Lender” appeared to indicate “that [it] was a lender rather than an arranger [of credit] for these loans.” M. Kilbreth Dep. at 86; Dep. Ex. 11. Racal responded to this notice in a letter dated October 28, 1991, and acknowledged that it “must eliminate the ‘Equal Housing Lender’ logo and, in lieu of this, add a line saying ‘Racal Mortgage is a Maine licensed Credit Services Organization.’” M. Kilbreth Dep. Ex. 10.

In November 1991, Racal underwent its first examination in Maine by Connie Berthiaume, an examiner from the Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection. Berthiaume Dep. at 25. At the conclusion of the examination, no violations of the Consumer Credit Code were found. On January 10, 1992, the Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection sent a *24 letter to Raeal pointing out that it is not a licensed lender and, therefore, that it was inappropriate for Raeal to list itself with other licensed lenders or supervised financial organizations under the “Local Mortgage Rates” column in the local paper. M. Kilbreth Dep. at 50; Dep. Ex. 3. Raeal responded to this inquiry with its own letter of January 23, 1992, in which, among other things, it agreed to discontinue its listing of rates under the Local Mortgage Rates column. M. Kilbreth Dep. at 82-84; Dep. Ex. 8.

On April 30, 1992, Plaintiffs Gregg and Kathleen Bullock executed and delivered to Raeal a promissory note and a mortgage deed on their residence in Auburn, Maine. 1 The Bullock loan transaction, with Raeal as the “lender,” was the first such transaction ever entered into by Raeal in Maine. Laurier V. Kilbreth Dec. ¶ 6. On July 30, 1992, Plaintiff Bruce Goulette executed and delivered to Raeal a promissory note and a mortgage deed on his residence in Turner, Maine. Goulette Aff. ¶¶2-3. On September 21, 1992, Plaintiffs Robin and Stephen St. Jean executed and delivered to Raeal a promissory note and a mortgage deed on their residence in Auburn, Maine. 2 All of these loans were for the purpose of financing or refinancing Plaintiffs’ residences.

At the time the loans to Plaintiffs closed, Raeal was registered as a CSO in Maine. L. Kilbreth Dec. ¶ 4; M. Kilbreth Dep. at 28. During the same time frame, Raeal also held various mortgage lender and/or loan broker licenses in the state of New Hampshire and Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 3 M. Kilbreth Dep. at 96-101; Dep. Ex. 16-21. The loans from Raeal to Plaintiffs were “table funded;” that is, Chemical Residential Mortgage Corporation (“Chemical”) provided all of the funds to be loaned to Plaintiffs and the loans were, immediately after closing, assigned to Chemical. M. Kilbreth Dep. at 50; L. Kilbreth Dec. ¶ 5; Cassell Dep. at 25-26. It is not disputed that after the closing, Chemical undertook the obligation to service the loans and to collect any amounts due from the borrowers. 4 Raeal had never engaged in this type of transaction during 1991 or anytime prior to 1991. Kilbreth Dec. ¶ 6. Raeal had previously arranged table-funded loans in which it closed loans not in its own name but in the name of a investor, such as Chemical. M. Kilbreth Dep. 51.

II. DISCUSSION

The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has recently explained once again the workings and purposes of the summary judgment procedure:

Summary judgment has a special niche in civil litigation. Its “role is to pierce the boilerplate of the pleadings and assay the parties’ proof in order to determine whether trial is actually required.” Wynne v. Tufts Univ. Sch. of Med., 976 F.2d 791, 794 *25 (1st Cir.1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 1030, 113 S.Ct. 1845, 123 L.Ed.2d 470 (1993). The device allows courts and litigants to avoid full-blown trials in unwinnable cases, thus conserving the parties’ time and money, and permitting courts to husband scarce judicial resources.
A court may grant summary judgment “if 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 a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). . . .
Once a properly documented motion has engaged the gears of Rule 56, the party to whom the motion is directed can shut down the machinery only by showing that a trial-worthy issue exists. See National Amusements [v. Town of Dedham], 43 F.3d [731,] 735 [(1st Cir.1995)]. As to issues on which the summary judgment target bears the ultimate burden of proof, she cannot rely on an absence of competent evidence, but must affirmatively point to specific facts that demonstrate the existence of an authentic dispute. See Garside [v. Osco Drug, Inc.], 895 F.2d [46,] 48 [(1st Cir. 1990)]. Not every factual dispute is sufficient to thwart summary judgment; the contested fact must be “material” and the dispute over it must be “genuine.” In this regard, “material” means that a contested fact has the potential to change the outcome of the suit under the governing law if the dispute over it is resolved favorably to the nonmovant. See [United States v.] One Parcel [of Real Property with Buildings], 960 F.2d [200,] 204 [(1st Cir.1992)].

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Bluebook (online)
952 F. Supp. 22, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 809, 1997 WL 35294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-jean-v-racal-mortgage-med-1997.