U.S. Bank v. Roberts (In Re Roberts)

367 B.R. 677, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 1637, 2007 WL 1430339
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Colorado
DecidedApril 23, 2007
Docket16-16350
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 367 B.R. 677 (U.S. Bank v. Roberts (In Re Roberts)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U.S. Bank v. Roberts (In Re Roberts), 367 B.R. 677, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 1637, 2007 WL 1430339 (Colo. 2007).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM STAY

HOWARD R. TALLMAN, Chief Bankruptcy Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on Movant’s Amended Motion for Relief from Automatic Stay (docket #44) [the “Motion”]. The Court held a final hearing on the Motion on March 30, 2007. The Chapter 13 Trustee did not respond to the Motion and did not participate in the hearing.

The Movant, U.S. Bank National Association, as Trustee, alleges that it is the owner of real estate located at 2816 Williams Street, Denver, Colorado, [the “Property”] following its purchase of the Property at a foreclosure sale. It seeks relief from the automatic stay in order to proceed with an eviction action against the Debtor.

I. BACKGROUND

The Debtor has lived in the Property as her home for approximately 24 years. At a time when she was experiencing financial difficulties, she sought to refinance the Property and, on July 21, 2005, the Debtor executed an Adjustable Rate Note [the “Note”] in favor of EquiFirst Corporation [“EquiFirst”] in the amount of $247,500.00. At the same time, Debtor executed a Deed of Trust naming Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., [“MERS”] as beneficiary under the Deed of Trust. MERS served as a nominee for EquiFirst.

The Debtor’s obligations on the Note went into default and the Movant initiated foreclosure proceedings on May 3, 2006, by serving its Notice of Election and Demand for Sale by Public Trustee upon the Public Trustee for the City and County of Denver. On May 5, 2006, the Movant made an application to the District Court for the City and County of Denver, under Colo. R. Civ. P. 120 [“Rule 120”], for an order authorizing sale of the Debtor’s Property under the default provisions of the Deed of Trust and on June 11, 2006, that court entered its Order Authorizing Sale. On September 12, 2006, Movant purchased the Property at the Public Trustee’s sale and, on that date, the Public Trustee issued the Movant a Public Trustee’s Certificate of Purchase. On December 5, 2006, after the expiration of the time period allowed for the Debtor to redeem the Property, Mov-ant received a Public Trustee’s Deed confirming the foreclosure sale and conveying the Property to the Movant. Thereafter, on December 15, 2006, the Debtor filed her Voluntary Petition under chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code.

II. PRELIMINARY MATTERS

A. Motion to Continue

Prior to the Court taking evidence in this matter, Debtor objected to going forward with the hearing due to Movant’s failure to produce certain documents. The Court took the matter under advisement. The Court construes Debtor’s objection to *681 be a motion to continue and the Court will deny the motion.

Debtor sought documentation with respect to the working relationship between the Movant and Asset Link, the party which had initially been named as the mov-ant with respect to this Motion. But Asset Link is no longer the movant in this matter. As far as is apparent to the Court, Asset Link was initially named as the mov-ant in error. None of the documents offered into evidence at hearing give any indication that Asset Link has any interest in the Property. The evidence indicates that Asset Link’s role is as a sub-servicer employed to market the Property post-foreclosure.

The Court has not been made aware of any formal document request made of the Movant by the Debtor. Nor did the Debt- or make any motion to compel the production in order for the Court to take action prior to the hearing. But, more importantly, Debtor could not have been prejudiced by any failure of the Movant to provide the documentation she sought. The nature of Movant’s relationship with Asset Link played no role in the Court’s review of this matter.

B. Objection to Amendment

Debtor objected to the “amendment” of the Motion which substituted the original movant, Asset Link, with the current Movant, U.S. Bank, National Association, as Trustee. The Court shares Debtor’s frustration that Movant’s counsel apparently had some difficulty figuring out the identity of its client in this matter. But Debtor cannot have it both ways. She quite properly sought clarification of Asset Link’s role in this transaction. That clarification came in the form of multiple amendments to the Motion. The Motion was ultimately amended on March 2, 2007, to reflect the name of the Movant in its current form. The amendments to the Motion served to inform both the Debtor and the Court of the true party in interest in this matter.

Debtor suffered no prejudice by those amendments to the Motion. The Court has deemed the Motion to have been filed on March 2, 2007, and has provided that, for the purposes of § 362(e), the automatic stay in this case would run until May 1, 2007, or until the Court issues its order in this matter. Order (docket # 60), April 2, 2007. That way, the 60 day time limitation reflected in § 362(e) did not begin to run until the filing of the final amendment so the Debtor is not harmed by the confusion. The Debtor’s objection to the amendments is overruled.

C. Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law

At the close of Movant’s evidence, Debt- or moved for a judgment in her favor as a matter of law. Debtor contends that Mov-ant failed to adduce sufficient evidence to entitle it to judgment as a matter of law. The Court took the motion under advisement. The motion will be denied. As is evident from the following discussion, the Movant produced ample evidence to support a judgment in its favor.

III. DISCUSSION

A. Informal Proof of Claim

The Debtor desires for this Court to look behind the Public Trustee’s Deed and examine the propriety of the foreclosure proceedings conducted under Colorado state law. The Debtor argues that the filing of the Movant’s Motion constitutes an informal proof of claim and that whenever a proof of claim is objected to, the burden falls upon the claimant to prove its claim. On its face, that argument may have a grain of logic to it but, in fact, it fails on at least two different levels.

First of all the Debtor’s premise that a motion for relief from stay is neces *682 sarily recognized as an informal proof of claim is faulty. The case of In re Reliance Equities, Inc., 966 F.2d 1338 (10th Cir.1992), sets out the standards used by bankruptcy courts in the Tenth Circuit to assess whether an informal proof of claim may be recognized:

1. the proof of claim must be in writing;
2. the writing must contain a demand by the creditor on the debtor’s estate;
3. the writing must express an intent to hold the debtor liable for the debt;
4. the proof of claim must be filed with the Bankruptcy Court; and
5. based on the facts of the case, it would be equitable to allow the amendment.

Id. at 1345.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
367 B.R. 677, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 1637, 2007 WL 1430339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/us-bank-v-roberts-in-re-roberts-cob-2007.