Federal Nat'l Mortgage v. Giles, M. & S. ( 2015 )

J-A22041-15
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
ASSOCIATION, SUCCESSOR TO PENNSYLVANIA
CITIMORTGAGE, INC.,
Appellee
v.
MICHAEL P. GILES AND STEPHANIE J.
GILES,
Appellants No. 961 MDA 2014
Appeal from the Judgment Entered May 5, 2014
in the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County
Civil Division at No.: 12-20787
BEFORE: BOWES, J., JENKINS, J., and PLATT, J.*
MEMORANDUM BY PLATT, J.: FILED OCTOBER 06, 2015
Appellants, Michael P. Giles and Stephanie J. Giles, appeal from the
summary judgment entered in favor of Citimortgage, Inc. (Citimortgage),
predecessor-in-interest to Appellee, Federal National Mortgage Association
(Fannie Mae), in this mortgage foreclosure action.1 We affirm.
We take the relevant factual and procedural history of this case from
the trial court’s September 5, 2014 opinion and our independent review of
the record. On May 23, 2003, Appellants executed a mortgage and
____________________________________________
*
Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
1
Mr. Giles is an attorney and he represents himself and Mrs. Giles in this
appeal.
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promissory note on a property located at 939 Wayne Avenue, Wyomissing,
Pennsylvania, obligating them to repay the loan to First Horizon Home Loan
Corporation d/b/a First Horizon Lending Center on a monthly basis. The
mortgage was then assigned to several different companies, and ultimately
was assigned to Citimortgage on March 17, 2010.
Appellants stopped making payments on the mortgage in or about
November 2010. After they received pre-foreclosure notice pursuant to Act
91, see 35 P.S. §§ 1680.401c-1680.412c, Appellants applied for assistance
under the Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Loan Program on
March 17, 2011. They were denied assistance under the program on May
11, 2011.
On September 10, 2012, Citimortgage filed a complaint in mortgage
foreclosure against Appellants, averring that the mortgage was in default
and they owed payments for the amounts due from December 1, 2010,
forward. In their February 6, 2013 answer with new matter, Appellants
responded to the material portions of the complaint with general denials and
a claim that they are without sufficient knowledge or information with
respect to the amounts due on the mortgage. On November 21, 2013,
Citimortgage filed its motion for summary judgment. Appellants filed a
response on December 20, 2013, claiming in pertinent part that the parties
had not engaged in any discovery and that they required at least 120 days
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to conduct it.2 On May 5, 2014, after oral argument, the trial court granted
Citimortgage’s motion for summary judgment and entered an in rem
judgment against Appellants in the amount of $180,533.78, plus interest
and costs.
Appellants timely appealed. Pursuant to the trial court’s order, they
filed a timely concise statement of errors complained of on appeal on June
30, 2014. See Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b). The trial court entered an opinion on
September 5, 2014. See Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a).3
Appellants raise one issue for our review:
A. Whether the trial court committed an error of law, or abused
its discretion, when it granted [Citimortgage’s] motion for
summary judgment, by failing to apply the correct standards to
consider said motion, and failing to consider the entire record
before it?
(Appellants’ Brief, at 4).
____________________________________________
2
Appellants attached a copy of a letter signed by Mr. Giles addressed to
counsel for Citimortgage dated May 17, 2013, in which he advised that he
would like to conduct discovery and stated that he “will request documents
from [Citimortgage] at the time [he] notice[s] the deposition [of the
company’s document control officer].” (Exhibit A to Appellants’ Response to
Citimortgage’s Motion for Summary Judgment, 5/17/13, at 1). However,
Appellants made no formal discovery requests. (See Trial Court Opinion,
9/05/14, at 5).
3
After Appellants filed this appeal, Fannie Mae was substituted as Appellee
and as the plaintiff in the mortgage foreclosure action. (See Appellee’s
Brief, at 2 n.1).
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Our standard of review of an order granting a motion for summary
judgment requires us to determine whether the trial court committed an
error of law or abused its discretion. See Cigna Corp. v. Executive Risk
Indem., Inc., 111 A.3d 204, 210 (Pa. Super. 2015).
[O]ur scope of review is plenary, and our standard of
review is the same as that applied by the trial court. . . . An
appellate court may reverse the entry of a summary judgment
only where it finds that the lower court erred in concluding that
the matter presented no genuine issue as to any material fact
and that it is clear that the moving party was entitled to a
judgment as a matter of law. In making this assessment, we
view the record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving
party, and all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue of
material fact must be resolved against the moving party. As our
inquiry involves solely questions of law, our review is de novo.
Thus, our responsibility as an appellate court is to
determine whether the record either establishes that the
material facts are undisputed or contains insufficient evidence of
facts to make out a prima facie cause of action, such that there
is no issue to be decided by the fact-finder. If there is evidence
that would allow a fact-finder to render a verdict in favor of the
non-moving party, then summary judgment should be denied.
Bastian v. Sullivan, 117 A.3d 338, 344 (Pa. Super. 2015) (citation
omitted).
In their issue on appeal, Appellants challenge the trial court’s entry of
summary judgment, arguing that the record reflects they raised several
issues of material fact. (See Appellants’ Brief, at 6-8). They maintain that
the court ignored the record before it, that it failed to apply correct
standards, and that it erroneously concluded that their responses to the
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averments in the complaint constituted general denials. (See id. at 7-8, 14;
see also Trial Ct. Op., at 2, 4). We disagree.
. . . A party bearing the burden of proof at trial is entitled
to summary judgment “whenever there is no genuine issue of
any material fact as to a necessary element of the cause of
action or defense which could be established by additional
discovery or expert report[.]” Pa.R.C.P. No. 1035.2(1). In
response to a summary judgment motion, the nonmoving party
cannot rest upon the pleadings, but rather must set forth specific
facts demonstrating a genuine issue of material fact. Pa.R.C.P.
No. 1035.3.
The holder of a mortgage has the right, upon default, to
bring a foreclosure action. The holder of a mortgage is entitled
to summary judgment if the mortgagor admits that the
mortgage is in default, the mortgagor has failed to pay on the
obligation, and the recorded mortgage is in the specified
amount.
* * *
. . . General denials [to averments in a complaint]
constitute admissions where . . . specific denials are required.
See Pa.R.C.P. No. 1029(b). Furthermore, “in mortgage
foreclosure actions, general denials by mortgagors that
they are without information sufficient to form a belief as
to the truth of averments as to the principal and interest
owing [on the mortgage] must be considered an
admission of those facts.” First Wis. Tr. Co. v. Strausser, .
. . 653 A.2d 688, 692 ([Pa.Super.] 1995); see Pa.R.C.P. No.
1029(c) Note. . . .
Bank of America, N.A. v. Gibson, 102 A.3d 462, 464-67 (Pa. Super.
2014), appeal denied, 112 A.3d 648 (Pa. 2015) (case citation omitted;
emphasis added) (determining entry of summary judgment proper where
appellant effectively admitted material allegations of complaint with
ineffective denials and improper claims of lack of knowledge). In a
mortgage foreclosure action, “[u]nquestionably, apart from
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appellee[/mortgagee], appellants[/mortgagors] are the only parties who
would have sufficient knowledge on which to base a specific denial.”
Strausser, supra at 692 (citation omitted).
Here, after review of the record, we conclude that it belies Appellants’
contention that the trial court ignored issues of material fact and failed to
apply correct standards in granting summary judgment. As noted above,
Appellants responded to the material portions of Citimortgage’s complaint
with general denials and a claim of lack of knowledge. (See Appellants’
Answer with New Matter, 2/06/13, at 1 ¶¶ 5-6). They did not provide an
alternative accounting of their mortgage payments or explain why the
amount sought by Citimortgage was incorrect. (See id.). Therefore, we
agree with the trial court that Appellants in effect admitted the material
allegations of the complaint, and that they failed to set forth specific facts to
raise a genuine issue of material fact regarding the default. See Gibson,
supra at 464-67. They were not entitled to rest simply on the pleadings.
See id. at 464.
Insofar as Appellants contend that the trial court failed to consider the
lack of discovery, (see Appellants’ Brief, at 13), this contention is meritless
where they did not serve any formal requests for discovery during the
approximate nine-month period between their answer to the complaint and
Citimortgage’s motion for summary judgment. See Strausser, supra at
695 (stating this Court unsympathetic to claim of no discovery before entry
of summary judgment in mortgage foreclosure action, observing “[i]f
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[appellant], who is an attorney, felt that discovery was so vital to his case,
then he could have taken many different steps to effectuate that goal.”).
In sum, we conclude that the trial court did not err or abuse its
discretion in granting Citimortgage’s motion for summary judgment. See
Cigna Corp., supra at 210. Accordingly, Appellants’ sole issue on appeal
does not merit relief.
Judgment affirmed.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 10/6/2015
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