PER CURIAM.
In this residential-foreclosure case, defendant Donna Marie Frassetto appeals from a January 11, 2013 order granting summary judgment on liability to plaintiff U.S. Bank, National Association, not in its individual capacity, but solely as trustee for the RMAC Trust, Series 2013-1T, denying defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint, and transferring the case to the Foreclosure Unit as an uncontested matter; and an August 8, 2014 order denying defendant's motion to vacate summary judgment, dismiss the complaint, and alter the amount of the final judgment. We affirm.
On July 20, 2007, defendant executed a note, borrowing $303,000 from Accredited Home Lenders, Inc. (AHL). She secured payment of the note by executing a mortgage in favor of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), as nominee for AHL. Defendant received a notice of cancelation (NOC) indicating that if she desired to cancel the transaction, she was required to notify AHL in writing at an address in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. On July 21, 2007, defendant ignored the NOC instructions and faxed a NOC to an unknown number in Central
Islip, New York. As a result, AHL never received the NOC. Despite defendant's assertion that she canceled the transaction, she began making her mortgage payments.
In October 2008, defendant applied for and executed a modification agreement with HomEq, the mortgagee's servicing agent at that time. The agreement stated that "[defendant] agrees to pay the [n]ew [b]alance to HomEq and has no defenses, claims or offsets with respect thereto." Consequently, defendant waived any defenses and she remained obligated to repay the debt. Defendant continued making her mortgage payments for another six months.
In September 2009, MERS assigned the mortgage to Arch Bay Holdings, L.L.C., Series 2009B (Arch Bay).
In April 2012, Arch Bay filed this foreclosure complaint. Defendant filed a contested answer in June 2012, without alleging violations under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), 15
In December 2012, Arch Bay moved for summary judgment, arguing that there were no disputed facts and it was entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law. Arch Bay's counsel acknowledged that QSC lost the note, but submitted lost-note certifications explaining that Arch Bay had possession of the note at the time it filed the complaint.
Defendant moved to dismiss the foreclosure complaint, contending Arch Bay lacked standing to file the complaint. In support of her motion, defendant admitted signing the note for $303,000 and executing a mortgage on the property to secure the note. Defendant maintained, however, that she had rescinded the loan in July 2007.
The court conducted oral argument on Arch Bay's summary judgment motion and defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint, and rendered an oral opinion. The judge concluded that Arch Bay had standing to file the complaint and the mortgage was valid. The judge rejected defendant's contention that she had properly rescinded the original note and mortgage. He also emphasized that defendant had entered into a modification agreement waiving any defenses that she may have had.
On January 11, 2013, the court granted summary judgment on liability to Arch Bay, struck defendant's answer, entered default against defendant, and transferred the case to the Foreclosure Unit as an uncontested matter. The judge explained to defendant that Arch Bay would be filing an application for final judgment fixing the amount due and owing. Thereafter, the matter would proceed to a sheriff sale.
In June 2014, plaintiff filed a motion for the entry of final judgment. One week later, defendant filed a motion to fix the amount due on the mortgage.
On July 23, 2014, two days before the return date on the motion for final judgment, and eighteen months after the court awarded summary judgment on liability to plaintiff, defendant filed a motion to vacate summary judgment and dismiss the complaint. The court treated defendant's motion as one seeking reconsideration of the January 11, 2013 order and scheduled oral argument.
In August 2014, the judge conducted oral argument on defendant's motion to vacate summary judgement and dismiss the complaint. Defendant repeated her contention that the mortgage was void because she had rescinded the loan. On August 8, 2014, the judge rejected defendant's argument and entered the order denying defendant's motion.
On September 1, 2014, the court awarded final judgment in the amount of $456,774.48. The matter proceeded to a sheriff sale, which defendant had successfully adjourned. Defendant then attempted to stay the adjourned sheriff sale pending mediation. In February 2015, the judge adjourned the sheriff sale to April 2015, but denied defendant's motion to stay. In April 2015, we denied defendant's emergent application to stay the sheriff sale.
On appeal, defendant argues that the judge erroneously granted summary judgment to plaintiff because she had rescinded the transaction in July 2007. Defendant also contends that Arch Bay lacked standing to institute this foreclosure action, and therefore, the final judgment of foreclosure is void. As a result, defendant urges us to set aside the final foreclosure judgment and vacate summary judgment on liability entered in plaintiff's favor.
We begin by addressing defendant's argument that the judge erred by entering summary judgment in favor of plaintiff. Defendant's contention is premised on her assertion that the judge "abused [his] discretion by determining there is no issue as to [d]efendant [r]escinding the loan."
Summary judgment may be granted when, considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
Here, the record demonstrates that defendant failed to properly rescind the loan. Rather than following AHL's cancelation instructions by mailing AHL a written NOC at the designated New Jersey address, defendant admitted that she faxed her NOC to an unknown telephone number in Central Islip, New York. There is no evidence in this record that AHL received defendant's NOC.
Instead of taking action to follow up on her failed attempt to rescind the loan, defendant began making her mortgage payments. More than a year later, defendant applied for and received a loan modification agreement, thereby implicitly acknowledging the validity of the note and mortgage. Furthermore, defendant agreed to pay HomEq the balance due on the loan, stating in the modification agreement that she had no defenses, claims, or offsets.
Moreover, defendant did not timely raise the subject of rescission of the loan in her answer to the foreclosure complaint or her Law Division complaint. In other words, she did not make a TILA claim. Defendant raised for the first time in her opposition to Arch Bay's motion for summary judgment, approximately five and one-half years after she executed the note and mortgage, that she had rescinded the loan.
We reject defendant's contention that AHL lacked standing to file the foreclosure complaint.
A party must "own or control" the underlying debt obligation to have standing to foreclose a mortgage.
Arch Bay's counsel provided lost-note certifications to the judge. These certifications adhered to the requirements set forth in
A vice-president of DBNTC certified that in July 2007, DBNTC received possession of the original note that defendant signed, placed the note in its custodian file, and forwarded that file to QSC. The original note, which included an allonge with an endorsement to plaintiff, remained with DBNTC. Arch Bay, the mortgagee of record, was the holder of the note in 2009, before it filed the mortgage complaint. The vice-president further certified that in October 2012, QSC returned to DBNTC the custodian file with a copy of the note.
We conclude there was no error in denying defendant's motion to vacate summary judgment on liability. The judge treated defendant's motion to vacate the issuance of summary judgment in Arch Bay's favor as a reconsideration motion.
As an appellate court, we review the denial of a motion for reconsideration to determine whether the trial court abused its discretionary authority.
Applying this standard, we conclude that the judge did not abuse his discretion. In support of her motion to vacate summary judgment, defendant raised the same contentions that she had made in opposition to Arch Bay's summary judgment motion. The judge's decision to grant summary judgement was not palpably incorrect, and the judge did not fail to "appreciate the significance of probative, competent evidence."
We have also considered defendant's argument regarding the judge's denial of her motion to vacate summary judgment in light of
The rule is "`designed to reconcile the strong interests in finality of judgments and judicial efficiency with the equitable notion that courts should have authority to avoid an unjust result in any given case.'"
We afford substantial deference to a trial judge's determination of a motion filed under
To obtain relief pursuant to
We also consider whether defendant's motion meets the permissible reach of subsection (f)'s catch-all provision, which defies simple categorization.
When a court is presented with "such exceptional cases," the boundaries of subsection (f) are "as expansive as the need to achieve equity and justice."
Affirmed.
New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act,