Univest Bank and Trust v. Lurube Dev.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 11, 2022
Docket752 EDA 2021
StatusUnpublished

This text of Univest Bank and Trust v. Lurube Dev. (Univest Bank and Trust v. Lurube Dev.) 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
Univest Bank and Trust v. Lurube Dev., (Pa. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

J-S04002-22

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

UNIVEST BANK AND TRUST, CO. : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : LURUBE DEVELOPERS, LLC : : Appellant : No. 752 EDA 2021

Appeal from the Order Entered March 5, 2021 In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Civil Division at No(s): No. 170302437

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., MURRAY, J., and STEVENS, P.J.E.*

MEMORANDUM BY BENDER, P.J.E.: FILED MAY 11, 2022

Appellant, LuRube Developers, LLC, appeals from the order entered in

the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County on March 5, 2021, denying

its petition to set aside a sheriff’s sale of real property. We affirm.

Additionally, we grant Appellee’s request for an award of counsel fees and

costs against Appellant pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 2744, and we remand for the

trial court’s determination of the amount to be awarded.

The trial court summarized the relevant factual background and

procedural history of this matter in its Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) opinion, as follows:

[Appellant] is a limited liability company with two members. Raymond Johnson is the CEO[,] and his mother, Rubystine Johnson, holds a minority interest. On May 21, 2015, Valley Green Bank entered into a construction loan agreement with [Appellant] in the principal amount of $440,000.00. Univest Bank ____________________________________________

* Former Justice specially assigned to the Superior Court. J-S04002-22

and Trust Company (“Univest”) became the successor in interest to Valley Green Bank. The loan and all relevant agreements were assigned to Univest. On or about March 8, 2018, after the filing of its complaint in this case, Univest assigned [Appellant’s] construction loan and all relevant agreements to PA Holding and Trust Company ([the] “Bank” [or “Appellee”]), the real party in[]interest as [the p]laintiff in this case.1 1 See … [Bank’s] Answer to Motion to Set Aside [Sheriff’s Sale, 1/31/20, at Exhibit “A” (Praecipe to Mark Judgment),] [(]requesting that the Office of Judicial Records mark the judgment by confession entered in this case in the name of PA Holdings and Trust Co[)]. The original caption was not changed in this case.[1]

As collateral for the loan, [Appellant] had executed and delivered to Valley Green Bank an open-ended mortgage deed dated May 21, 2015, with a lien on 1700 Christian Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146 (“1700 Christian”). The mortgage was duly recorded. [Appellant] also executed and delivered an assignment of rents and leases. Raymond Johnson and Rubystine Johnson agreed to guarantee and act as sureties as individuals.

[Appellant] defaulted on March 21, 2017[,] and Univest confessed judgment against [Appellant], Raymond Johnson[,] and Rubystine Johnson[,] in the amount of $369,810.29 plus interest.5 [Appellant] did not move to open/strike the judgment. On August ____________________________________________

1 Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 2004 provides:

If a plaintiff has commenced an action in his own name and thereafter transfers his interest therein, in whole or in part, the action may continue in the name of the original plaintiff, or upon petition of the original plaintiff or upon petition of the original plaintiff or of the transferee or of any party in interest in the action, the court may direct the transferee to be substituted as plaintiff or joined with the original plaintiff.

Pa.R.Civ.P. 2004. “The language of Rule 2004 is clear in not requiring that, once a transfer of an interest occurs by a plaintiff after an action has commenced, a transferee be named as a co-plaintiff or substituted as plaintiff.” Cole v. Boyd, 719 A.2d 311, 313-14 (Pa. Super. 1998) (citing Birdsboro Corp. v. Weng, 626 A.2d 1216, 1217 (Pa. Super. 1993) (“Substitution of parties, once suit has been commenced ‘is permissible, [but] it is not essential under Rule 2004.’”) (brackets in original omitted)).

-2- J-S04002-22

18, 2017, a writ of execution to sell the subject property was issued by the Office of Judicial Records in Philadelphia at Univest’s request. 1700 Christian was listed for [a] sheriff’s sale on November 7, 2017. However, at Univest’s request, the sale was postponed to December 5, 2017[,] to allow Univest to make proper service of the writ of execution on all interested parties. This was the first of many postponements. 5 Additionally, [the] Bank had filed a mortgage foreclosure action against [Appellant] captioned as PA Holdings and Trust Co. v. LuRube Developers LLC, CP Phila. 1806-1323. The Bank eventually discontinued the foreclosure action and chose to pursue its uncollateralized confession of judgment process instead, while negotiating its foreclosure options.

The December 5, 2017 sheriff’s sale was postponed after Univest entered into a forbearance agreement with [Appellant], Raymond Johnson[,] and Rubystine Johnson. The hope was that [Appellant] could secure new financing to repay the loan[,] but [Appellant] defaulted again. A sheriff’s sale was rescheduled for February 6, 2018[,] with the consent of all parties. On January 31, 2018, approximately one week before the scheduled sale, and at [Appellant’s] request, Univest filed a motion to postpone which was granted.

On March 27, 2018, [Appellant] filed its own petition to postpone [the] sheriff’s sale. By then, the Bank had taken over from Univest, and Raymond Johnson was engaged in efforts to convince the Bank to sell the note to a new lender and find alternative financing. On April 2, 2018, [Appellant] withdrew its petition to postpone, having obtained the Bank’s consent.

In the meantime, the Bank filed a motion to reassess confessed judgment damages to $469,825.25[,] which was uncontested and granted. On October 16, 2019, the Bank filed a praecipe to issue a writ of execution to schedule a new sheriff’s sale date. This was the first time since April 2, 2018, that any action was taken toward listing a sheriff’s sale.

The Bank then served a writ upon [Appellant], the judgment creditors, lienholders[,] and all interested parties, and 1700 Christian was sold at [a] sheriff’s sale on January 7, 2020[,] for $360,000.

On January 20, 2020, [Appellant] filed [a] petition to set aside the January 7, 2020 sheriff’s sale.7 Arguments include[d] a claim that

-3- J-S04002-22

the Bank lack[ed] standing[,]8 … that the Bank had failed to provide notice of the impending sale[,] and failed to name indispensable parties.9 [Appellant a]lso averred … equitable arguments such as hours worked and money invested in the property. After the Bank filed a response to the petition, we scheduled an evidentiary hearing and stayed court proceedings. As a result of the pandemic and resulting closures, the evidentiary hearing was delayed until October 5, 2020[,] when it took place by Zoom. 7 This petition followed an unsuccessful complaint filed by [Appellant] in a separate action alleging the Bank had breached its fiduciary duty at LuRube Developers, LLC v. P[A] Holding Trust, CP Phila, 180900225. The Bank’s motion for summary judgment was granted on June 11, 2020. 8 See page[s]1-2 of this opinion which gives a procedural and business history[,] finding the Bank to be Univest’s successor and assignee of the mortgage loan in this case. 9 This argument lack[ed] merit since the guarantors do not have an interest in the property and consequently were not indispensable to this action.

Along the way, the Bank had filed a motion to cancel the evidentiary hearing[,] but we proceeded and later denied this motion as moot.

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