Wells Fargo Bank N.A. v. Sovereign Bank, N.A.

44 F. Supp. 3d 394, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125274, 2014 WL 4412397
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedSeptember 8, 2014
DocketNos. 13 Civ. 1222(NRB), 13 Civ. 4313(NRB)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 44 F. Supp. 3d 394 (Wells Fargo Bank N.A. v. Sovereign Bank, N.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wells Fargo Bank N.A. v. Sovereign Bank, N.A., 44 F. Supp. 3d 394, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125274, 2014 WL 4412397 (S.D.N.Y. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NAOMI REICE BUCHWALD, District Judge.

Plaintiff Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“Wells” or “plaintiff’), as Trustee of the Sovereign Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust, 2007-C1, Commercial Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2007-C1 (the “Trust”), acting by and through the Trust’s Sub-Special Servicer, Water-stone Asset Management, LLC (“Water-stone”), brings two related actions for breach of contract and breach of warranty against defendant Sovereign Bank, N.A. (“Sovereign” or “defendant”).1 Both actions arise out of a commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”) transaction involving two hundred and sixty-four mortgage loans worth over $1 billion. The first action-13 Civ. 1222 (the “Eneo Loan Action”)—pertains to one loan, while the second—13 Civ. 4313 (the “Five Loans Action”)—pertains to five. Plaintiff seeks the repurchase of these loans as a remedy for the various alleged breaches relating to them.

Presently before the Court are defendant’s motion to dismiss and for summary judgment, and plaintiffs motions to amend the complaints to add additional claims. Oral argument was held on the motions on August 14, 2014.2 For the reasons set forth below, we grant defendant’s motion to dismiss and for summary judgment and deny plaintiffs motions to amend.

BACKGROUND3

I. The CMBS Transaction

In this CMBS transaction, defendant sold two hundred and sixty-four loans to Morgan Stanley Capital I, Inc. (“Morgan Stanley”) pursuant to a Mortgage Loan Purchase Agreement (the “MLPA”). The MLPA—entered into by Sovereign as Seller and Morgan Stanley as Purchaser—was executed on June 8, 2007 and had a closing date of June 21, 2007. Once the loans were sold to Morgan Stanley, they were pooled into a trust (the “Trust”) and sold and assigned to Wells, as Trustee, pursu[397]*397ant to a Pooling and Service Agreement (the “PSA”). PSA § 2.01. The PSA, which was executed on June 1, 2007 and had a closing date of June 21, 2007, was entered into by, among others, Sovereign (as Special Servicer), Morgan Stanley (as Depositor), and Wells (as Trustee, Paying Agent, and Custodian). As the governing documents in the CMBS transaction, the MLPA and PSA are the operative contracts at issue in these cases.

II. Disclosure of Second Mortgage Loans

Once the Trust was created, shares of the mortgage loan pool were sold to investors as certificates. In evaluating whether to purchase these certificates, which were divided into different classes, the investors—known as certifieateholders—had access to not only the MLPA and PSA, but also a Confidential Offering Memorandum (“COM”) prepared by Sovereign and Morgan Stanley. See COM at iv. The COM contained extensive information about the offered certificates as well as the mortgage loans underlying them.

Among the information disclosed in the COM were details about certain mortgage loans whose properties secured second mortgages not held by the Trust. This information was disclosed in several places in the COM,4 most notably for present purposes the Mortgage Loan Schedule attached to the COM. Footnote 5 of the Mortgage Loan Schedule provides the following data about the six mortgage loans at issue in this litigation:

With respect to Mortgage Loan No. 60 [ (the “Caroline Arms Loan”) ], 6457 Fort Caroline Road, the Borrower has $1,025,000 of additional secured subordinate financing.
With respect to Mortgage Loan No. 69 [ (the “Linden Loan”) ], 1975 Linden Boulevard, the Borrower has $120,000 of additional secured subordinate financing. ...
With respect to Mortgage Loan No. 124 [ (the “Magnolia Terrace Loan”) ], 509 Magnolia Drive, the Borrower has a subordinate second lien in the amount of $475,000 held by the Housing Finance Authority of Leon County, Florida....
With respect to Mortgage Loan No. 226 [ (the “Eneo Loan”) ], 1720 East Tiffany Drive, the Borrower has $170,000 of secured financing in the form of a second lien, which is payable to Sovereign Bank.
With respect to Mortgage Loan No. 252 [ (the “Grand Loan”) ], 69-53/57 Grand Avenue, the Mortgaged Property also secures two secured subordinate mortgages, one in the amount of $460,000 and $370,000, respectively.
With respect to Mortgage Loan No. 4 [ (the “Marina Palms Loan”) ], The Marina Palms Apartments, the Borrower has mezzanine financing in the amount of $3,000,000.

COM Ex. A-l, n. 5.5

The MLPA and PSA also contain copies of the Mortgage Loan Schedule. In those [398]*398copies, however, the footnote number “5” appears in the same place (in the top row by the column titled “Cut-Off Date Balance”), but the text of the footnote is missing. Due to an error by Sovereign and/or Morgan Stanley, footnote numbers 1, 5, 9, 10, 12, and 18 are included, but their underlying text is not.6 McClernan Decl. ¶ 15.

III. Alleged Breaches of the Representations and Warranties

In the MLPA, Sovereign made a number of Representations and Warranties (“Reps”) concerning, among other things, the origination, quality, servicing, and default status of the mortgages as of the closing date. Three of these Reps—18,10, and 7—are relevant to the present actions.

Rep 18 provides, in pertinent part: “No Mortgaged Property secures any mortgage loan not represented in the Mortgaged Loan Schedule; ... [N]o mortgaged loan is secured by property that secures another mortgage loan other than one or more Mortgage Loans as shown on the Mortgage Loan Schedule.” MLPA Ex. B ¶ 18.

Rep. 10 provides, in pertinent part: “The origination, servicing and collection practices used by [Sovereign] ... with respect to such mortgage loans have been in all material respects legal, proper and prudent and have met customary industry standards.” Id. ¶ 10.

Finally, Rep. 7 provides, in pertinent part: “There exists no material default, breach, violation or event of acceleration (and, to [Sovereign’s] knowledge, no event that, with the passage of time or the giving of notice, or both, would constitute any of the foregoing) under the documents evidencing or securing the Mortgage Loan----” Id. ¶7.

Plaintiff alleges that defendant breached some or all of these Reps with respect to the mortgage loans at issue in these actions.

A. The Eneo Loan Action

The current complaint in the Eneo Loan Action alleges that defendant breached Rep 18 by not disclosing in the MLPA’s Mortgage Loan Schedule that the property securing the Eneo Loan was encumbered by a second mortgage in the amount of $170,000.7

In the proposed Amended Complaint, plaintiff seeks to add an additional cause of action for breach of Rep 10 due to numerous alleged flaws with the origination and servicing of the Eneo Loan.

B. The Five Loans Action

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Bluebook (online)
44 F. Supp. 3d 394, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125274, 2014 WL 4412397, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wells-fargo-bank-na-v-sovereign-bank-na-nysd-2014.