Tidmore v. Citizens Bank & Trust

250 So. 3d 577
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedMay 12, 2017
Docket2150834
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 250 So. 3d 577 (Tidmore v. Citizens Bank & Trust) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tidmore v. Citizens Bank & Trust, 250 So. 3d 577 (Ala. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

THOMPSON, Presiding Judge.

On June 16, 2015, Citizens Bank and Trust ("Citizens") filed an unlawful-detainer action against Danny R. Tidmore in the Marshall District Court. On July 14, 2015, the action was transferred to the Marshall Circuit Court ("the trial court"), and Citizens amended its complaint, asserting an ejectment claim and seeking to recover on several promissory notes between Citizens and Tidmore. Citizens based its ejectment claim on its assertion that it was entitled to possession of certain property ("the property") by virtue of its recent foreclosure on a mortgage on the property executed by Tidmore and its purchase of the property at the foreclosure sale. Tidmore answered and counterclaimed, seeking both declaratory relief and seeking to recover monetary damages on claims asserting, among other things, negligence, wantonness, unjust enrichment, wrongful foreclosure, slander of title, breach of contract, fraud, "placed in false light," defamation, slander, libel, unfair and deceptive trade practices, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

On September 21, 2015, Citizens moved the trial court for an order awarding it possession of the property. On October 9, 2015, the trial court conducted a hearing on that request. Thereafter, on October 22, 2015, the trial court entered an order determining that Citizens was entitled to a writ of possession to the property. The trial court specified in that order that the parties' remaining claims would be heard at a later hearing. On November 4, 2015, Tidmore appealed to our supreme court, which transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to § 12-2-7, Ala. Code 1975. Citizens sought to dismiss that appeal, and the parties argued the issue whether the trial court had entered an order that constituted a preliminary injunction. On June 30, *5802016, this court, assuming, based on the positions of the parties, that the order was one granting a preliminary injunction, dismissed the appeal because a final judgment had subsequently been entered in the action. See Evans v. Cumberland Lake Country Club,Inc., 682 So.2d 11, 13 (Ala. 1996) (an appeal of a preliminary injunction was moot when the trial court entered a later, permanent injunction); and Gulf House Ass'n, Inc. v.Town of Gulf Shores, 484 So.2d 1061, 1064 (Ala. 1985) ("Whether or not the trial court erred in denying the preliminary injunction is moot, because there has been a final decision on the merits which denied the permanent injunction.").

While the appeal of the October 22, 2015, order was pending, Citizens moved for a summary judgment on all claims, and Tidmore opposed that motion. On May 2, 2016, the trial court purported to enter a summary judgment in favor of Citizens on all of the parties' claims and awarded Citizens monetary damages constituting principal and interest on the various outstanding loans Tidmore had obtained from Citizens. Tidmore filed a purported postjudgment motion, which the trial court denied. Tidmore timely appealed to our supreme court, which transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to § 12-2-7, Ala. Code 1975.

Initially, we note that because Tidmore's appeal of the October 22, 2015, order was pending in this court until June 30, 2016, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to enter its May 2, 2016, summary judgment. See Landry v. Landry, 91 So.3d 88, 89 (Ala. Civ. App. 2012) (jurisdiction can be in only one court at a time); and Johnson v. Willis, 893 So.2d 1138, 1141 (Ala. 2004) (" '[W]hile an appeal is pending, the trial court "can do nothing in respect to any matter or question which is involved in the appeal, and which may be adjudged by the appellate court." ' " (quoting Reynolds v. Colonial Bank, 874 So.2d 497, 503 (Ala. 2003), quoting in turn Foster v. Greer & Sons, Inc., 446 So.2d 605, 608 (Ala. 1984) )). Accordingly, upon submission, this court entered an order reinvesting the trial court with jurisdiction to reenter its summary judgment. The trial court did so on April 20, 2017, and Tidmore's appeal then became effective. Rule 4(a)(4), Ala. R. App. P.; Hendricks v. KW Plastics, Inc., 5 So.3d 1289, 1290 (Ala. Civ. App. 2008).

The record indicates that on July 5, 2012, Tidmore and his former wife obtained a loan from Citizens that was secured by a mortgage on property that included the house in which the Tidmores resided. (Tidmore and his wife divorced, and Tidmore was awarded the house and the property, subject to its indebtedness; Citizens filed its ejectment action against only Tidmore.) The amount of the loan was $70,755.22, and it was evidenced by a "balloon note" payable over 85 months.

In the spring of 2013, Tidmore began having financial difficulties and did not remain current on his mortgage payments. Tidmore and Rick Malone, the Citizens loan officer, had several discussions regarding the late or missed payments. Malone stated that, at one point, Tidmore anticipated using the proceeds of the settlement he received, or would receive, from a legal action to catch up the mortgage payments, but, Malone stated, Tidmore later informed him that he could not do so because he had not received as large a settlement from that legal action as he had anticipated. At the October 9, 2015, hearing on Citizens's request for possession of the property, Tidmore disputed that he was behind in his payments to Citizens in the fall of 2014, although documents submitted by Citizens showed payments credited toward Tidmore's account a month to several months after their due *581dates. Regardless, it is undisputed that in October 2014 Tidmore made a payment to Citizens that was credited, except for $7.65, to his past-due September 2014 mortgage payment and that Tidmore made no further payments toward the mortgage indebtedness after that date. The trial court noted in its May 20, 2016, judgment in this matter, which, as noted, was reentered on April 20, 2017, that Tidmore had failed to make any payment toward the mortgage indebtedness in more than one year.

Tidmore filed for bankruptcy protection on November 24, 2014, but that action was dismissed on January 21, 2015, because of Tidmore's noncompliance with the bankruptcy plan. On February 10, 2015, Citizens notified Tidmore by letter that the mortgage loan was in default and that his failure to cure the default within ten days might result in the acceleration of the mortgage indebtedness. That letter asked Tidmore to contact Citizens for a determination of the amount necessary to pay the mortgage indebtedness in full. Attached to that letter was a "statement in compliance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act," see

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Bluebook (online)
250 So. 3d 577, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tidmore-v-citizens-bank-trust-alacivapp-2017.