Young v. Chase Home Finance, LLC (In re Young)

523 B.R. 114
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedJanuary 14, 2015
DocketBankruptcy No. 10-32274; Adversary No. 14-3100
StatusPublished

This text of 523 B.R. 114 (Young v. Chase Home Finance, LLC (In re Young)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young v. Chase Home Finance, LLC (In re Young), 523 B.R. 114 (Ohio 2015).

Opinion

Decision Granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss Counts 1 and 3 of the Amended Complaint

GUY R. HUMPHREY, Bankruptcy Judge.

On April 14, 2010 the debtor, Betty G. Young, filed a petition under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code (estate doc. 1). The proposed plan (estate doc. 2), which was confirmed (estate doc. 21), provided that the claim of “Chase”1 would be paid Class 7 by Young’s son. (estate doc. 2, ¶ 19.c). Class 7 provides for “[scheduled claims which are to be paid by a non-debtor and are not to be paid by the Trustee or the Debtor.” (estate doc. 2, p. 6). Chase was listed in the plan as a lien holder on a parcel of property located at 9050 Haines Road, Waynesville, Ohio (the “Property”). Young did not indicate she intended to pursue any other course of action as to Chase’s claim. Chase has not filed a proof of claim.

On July 31, 2014 Young filed a complaint against Chase Home Finance LLC, which was amended on October 8, 2014. docs. 1 and 15. The amendment added the Chapter 13 Trustee as a plaintiff. The plaintiffs allege as follows: Young was a one-half owner of the Property on the petition date. Chase was granted a mortgage on the Property in July 2007 for $168,000. At that time, Young was the sole owner of the Property. Although the Property is in Warren County, Ohio, Chase recorded the mortgage in Butler County. Not until post-petition, specifically March 24, 2014, [116]*116did Chase record the mortgage in Warren County.

Based on these factual allegations, Young is pursuing three separate counts against Chase. Those counts seek 1) a declaration that the Mortgage is “invalid”, under Ohio law because it was recorded in the wrong county; 2) damages for violation of the automatic stay on account of Chase’s re-recording of the mortgage post-petition and 3) damages for the “unlawful taking” of property of the estate through the collection of mortgage payments.

Chase has moved to dismiss all three counts of the complaint.2

Jurisdiction

This court has jurisdiction over this proceeding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1334(b) and this case has been referred to this court through 28 U.S.C. 157(a) and General Order 05-02 of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. This is a core proceeding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(A), (E), (K) and (O).

Standard for Dismissal for Failure to State a Claim

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), incorporated by Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7012(b), states that a defendant may move to dismiss a complaint for “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted[.]” In considering a motion to dismiss, the court “must construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, accept all the factual allegations as true, and determine whether the plaintiff can prove any set of facts in support of her claim that would entitle her to relief.” Wee Care Child Ctr., Inc. v. Lumpkin, 680 F.3d 841, 846 (6th Cir.2012) (quoting Turker v. Ohio Dep’t of Rehab. and Corr., 157 F.3d 453, 456 (6th Cir.1998)). While a plaintiff need not provide detailed factual allegations to survive a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), “a plaintiffs obligation to provide the ‘grounds’ of his ‘entitlement to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (citations omitted). See also Kolley v. Adult Protective Servs., 725 F.3d 581, 585 (6th Cir.2013) (quoting Eidson v. State of Tenn. Dep’t of Children’s Svcs., 510 F.3d 631, 634 (6th Cir.2007) (“conclusory allegations or legal conclusions masquerading as factual allegations will not suffice.”)). The complaint must allege sufficient facts to state a plausible claim. Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

Analysis

Count 1 seeks declaratory relief that the mortgage in question is not valid. By failure to record it in the correct county, the plaintiffs assert it is not valid under Ohio Revised Code § 5301.23,3 which ad[117]*117dresses the effective date of recorded mortgages. However, the law in Ohio is that a defect in executing and recording a mortgage, absent fraud or duress, does not affect the validity of the mortgage between the mortgagor and mortgagee. Even unrecorded, absent fraud or duress, the conveyance is valid between the debtor and the mortgagee.4 Citizens Nat’l Bank of Zanesville v. Denison, 165 Ohio St. 89, 133 N.E.2d 329, 332 (1956).

The plaintiffs’ position may be motivated by the fact that the two-year statute of limitation to avoid this mortgage under the Trustee’s Chapter 5 powers has passed. See 11 U.S.C. § 546(a)(1) (“An action or proceeding under section 544, 545, 547, 548, of 553 of this title” must be brought by the later of either two years from the petition for relief or one year from the appointment of the first trustee within that two year period). While the lack of proper recordation might have allowed this mortgage to be avoided by the Trustee earlier, the statute of limitation for such an action would be a defense to such an action.

The plaintiffs argue this court’s decisions in Bank of New York v. Sheeley support their position. See Bank of N.Y. v. Sheeley, 2012 WL 8969064 (Bankr. S.D.Ohio Apr. 2, 2012); Bank of N.Y. v. Sheeley, 2013 Bankr.LEXIS 929 (Bankr. S.D.Ohio March 4, 2013). The plaintiffs misconstrue the Sheeley decisions. In Sheeley, the debtor owned two parcels of property. One parcel was vacant land, with the residence being on a separate parcel. The mortgage in question was mistakenly granted on the vacant parcel, rather than the residence, because the mortgagee attached to the mortgage only the property description for the vacant parcel. The issue was not avoidance, but a fundamental question as to which parcel the mortgage encumbered. To obtain an answer to this question, the mortgagee filed a declaratory judgment action. In the end, the mortgage document could not be reformed to correct the property description because the Chapter 13 trustee could use his avoidance powers defensively to prevent such reformation. Due to the intervening bankruptcy, the rights of the trustee as a bona fide purchaser for value without notice existed while the property remained property of the estate.

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Related

United Student Aid Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa
559 U.S. 260 (Supreme Court, 2010)
Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Wee Care Child Center, Inc. v. Lumpkin
680 F.3d 841 (Sixth Circuit, 2012)
Suzanne Kolley v. Adult Protective Services
725 F.3d 581 (Sixth Circuit, 2013)
In Re McLemore
426 B.R. 728 (S.D. Ohio, 2010)
In Re Miller
428 B.R. 791 (S.D. Ohio, 2010)
Grant, Konvalinka & Harrison, P.C. v. Still
737 F.3d 1034 (Sixth Circuit, 2013)
In re Moehring
485 B.R. 571 (S.D. Ohio, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
523 B.R. 114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-chase-home-finance-llc-in-re-young-ohsb-2015.