Walker v. North American Savings Bank

142 So. 3d 590, 2013 WL 856689, 2013 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 54
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedMarch 8, 2013
Docket2110055
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 142 So. 3d 590 (Walker v. North American Savings Bank) 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
Walker v. North American Savings Bank, 142 So. 3d 590, 2013 WL 856689, 2013 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 54 (Ala. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

On Application for Rehearing

THOMAS, Judge.

The opinion of January 4, 2013, is withdrawn, and the following is substituted therefor.

Steven R. Walker and Lawanda Walker appeal from a judgment of the Jefferson Circuit Court entering a summary judgment in favor of North American Savings Bank (“the Bank”) on the Bank’s ejectment action and disallowing the Walkers’ counterclaims. We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

In February 2005, Mr. Walker applied for a loan with the Bank and was preap-proved for a loan in the amount of $175,000 at a fixed interest rate of 7.125%. However, Mr. Walker had not located a property he intended to purchase at the time he was preapproved for the loan in the amount of $175,000. In August 2005, the Walkers located a property that they intended to purchase; however, the purchase price of the property was above the $175,000 pre-approval amount. Mrs. Walker subsequently applied for and obtained a loan in the amount of $224,000 from the Bank to purchase the property. On September 13, 2005, Mrs. Walker executed a promissory note in favor of the Bank and the Walkers signed a mortgage securing the note in favor of Mortgage Electronic Registrations Systems, Inc. (“MERS”), as nominee for the Bank. The promissory note indicated that the principal amount of the loan was $224,000, and the “Truth In Lending” disclosure statement (“the TIL statement”) indicated that the loan had a variable interest rate. It was undisputed that Mrs. Walker signed both the note and the TIL statement; however, the Walkers testified that they had been assured by the Bank that the loan terms would be modified 30 days after the September 13, 2005, closing date and that they would be given a lower interest rate. The loan terms were never modified.

In November 2005, the Walkers had trouble making their required monthly payment because, as the Walkers testified via affidavit, they had incurred some unexpected expenses following the death of a family member and had had a loss of income. The Walkers defaulted on the [593]*593loan.1 The mortgage was subsequently assigned to the Bank on July 20, 2008. The Walkers testified via affidavit that they were never notified of the assignment.

In support of its summary-judgment motion, the Bank submitted evidence indicating that it had notified the Walkers of its intent to foreclose on the property for their failure to timely pay the monthly installments due under the note. On September 5, 2008, an attorney retained by the Bank notified the Walkers via a mailed letter that the Bank was accelerating the maturity date of the loan and commencing foreclosure proceedings, with a foreclosure sale scheduled for September 80, 2008. The letter indicated that it had enclosed a copy of the foreclosure notice to be published in the Alabama Messenger. The notices of the foreclosure sale were published on September 6, 2008, September 13, 2008, and September 20, 2008, in the Alabama Messenger. At the foreclosure sale on September 30, 2008, the Bank, the highest bidder at the foreclosure sale, purchased the property for $205,000. On October 1, 2008, the Bank’s attorney sent the Walkers a demand for possession of the property.

On October 20, 2008, the Bank filed a complaint alleging that it was the owner of the property by virtue of a foreclosure deed and seeking to eject the Walkers from the property. On November 20, 2008, the Walkers answered the complaint, denying the allegations in the complaint and asserting the affirmative defenses of “defective notice, defective sale, and wrongful foreclosure.”

The parties conducted discovery. On July 7, 2009, the trial court entered a scheduling order that set the trial date and stated, in pertinent part: “Any amendments to the pleadings must be FILED no later than December 1, 2009. Other amendments to pleadings require leave of Court.” (Capitalization in original.)

On October 28, 2009, the Bank filed a motion for a summary judgment. In support of that motion, the Bank submitted Mr. Walker’s February 2005 loan application, Mrs. Walker’s August 2005 loan application, the TIL statement signed by Mrs. Walker, the mortgage, the assignment of the mortgage, the September 5, 2008, notice-of-acceleration and notice-of-foreclosure letter, the foreclosure deed, the October 1, 2008, demand letter, and the affidavit of Taunya Kellam, an assistant vice president and collections and REO manager for the Bank. Kellam stated that she had reviewed the Bank’s records concerning the Walkers’ loan and that she had personal knowledge of the facts set forth in her affidavit. She authenticated several important documents, including the Walkers’ loan applications, the mortgage, the TIL statement, the foreclosure deed, and the notice-of-acceleration and demand-for-possession letters that the Bank’s attorney had sent to the Walkers.

On November 19, 2009, the Walkers filed a response in opposition to the motion for a summary judgment, arguing that the Bank lacked a possessory interest in the property because it had wrongfully foreclosed. The Walkers further alleged that the foreclosure was wrongful because, they said, the Bank had breached the notice requirements of the mortgage, the Bank had failed to comply with loss-mitigation procedures, the Bank had breached its fiduciary duty because the purchase price it paid at foreclosure was far below market value, and Kellam’s affidavit was not based on personal knowledge as required by Rule 56(e), Ala. R. Civ. P., and, therefore, the Walkers asserted, there were genuine [594]*594issues of material fact regarding the propriety of the foreclosure sale. The Walkers’ opposition to the motion for a summary judgment also had Mr. Walker’s and Mrs. Walker’s affidavits attached to it.

The trial court had set a hearing on the Bank’s motion for a summary judgment for November 20, 2009. On November 20, 2009, in light of the Walkers’ November 19, 2009, response in opposition to the motion for a summary judgment, the trial court entered an order resetting the hearing on the summary-judgment motion for December 14, 2009. Additionally, the trial court’s November 20, 2009, order expressly allowed the Walkers until November 30, 2009, to file any supplements to their response and expressly allowed the Bank until December 11, 2009, to reply to the Walkers’ response. On November 30, 2009, the Walkers filed an amended response in opposition to the motion for a summary judgment. The amended response asserted the same arguments as to the same issues as the original response, but it contained several additional exhibits, including supplemental affidavits of Mr. Walker and Mrs. Walker.

On December 1, 2009, the last day allowed for amended pleadings without leave of court pursuant to the July 7, 2009, scheduling order, the Walkers filed a pleading styled as an “Amended Answer and Counterclaim” (“the amended answer”). The amended answer asserted several additional affirmative defenses and also contained numerous counterclaims. The counterclaims included the following: breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, wrongful foreclosure, violations of the Truth in Lending Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq. (“TILA”), violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, 12 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq. (“RESPA”), fraud and intentional misrepresentation, unfair and deceptive trade practices,2

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Bluebook (online)
142 So. 3d 590, 2013 WL 856689, 2013 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walker-v-north-american-savings-bank-alacivapp-2013.