WM. C. HETHERINGTON, Jr., Vice-Chief Judge.
¶ 1 Defendant Carmelina S. Murzello (Appellant) appeals only that part of the trial court's judgment which grants summary adjudication in favor of Plaintiff Bank of America, N.A. (BANA) on its mortgage foreclosure petition.
¶ 2 Appellant appeals without appellate briefs in conformance with the procedures for the appellate accelerated docket, Okla. Sup.Ct.R. 1.36, 12 O.S.Supp.2003, Ch. 15,
¶ 3 On February 23, 2010, BANA filed its foreclosure petition against numerous defendants, including Appellant and the heirs, devisees, unknown successors, etc. of Appellant's deceased husband, Raymond J. Murzello (Deceased). The original petition is not included in the accelerated record. However, BANA's Amended Petition for Foreclosure of Mortgage filed April 13, 2010, alleges, inter alia, that Appellant and Deceased did not make the September 1, 2009 payment or any subsequent payments due on a promissory note which they both executed on or about July 7, 2006 and promised to pay to "the order of the Lender," expressly identified therein as "Bank of America, N.A.," the principal sum of $182,000.00, with interest at the rate of 6.125% per annum, until paid. BANA further alleges that as part of the same transaction, Appellant and Deceased executed a real estate mortgage with power of sale executed to secure payment of the July 7, 2006 promissory note. In relevant part, the mortgage describes certain real property in the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma (subject property), identifies BANA as "Lender" and "mortgagee under this security instrument," and was electronically filed with the Tulsa County Clerk on July 17, 2006. Attached to BANA's Amended Petition are copies of the July 7, 2006 note and mortgage, which BANA alleges therein are "now held by [it]."
¶ 4 Appellant filed an answer, denying, inter alia, her remarriage and the amount BANA claimed was owing. She also alleges as a counterclaim the negligence of BANA personnel "in not advising" she and Deceased that the home was not being transferred to "Raymond Murzello and Carmelina Murzello, husband and wife, as joint tenants" and "in not preparing the deed" which would have conveyed the home to them as joint tenants, as they had requested on the loan application. Attached to Appellant's Answer and Counterclaim is 1) a copy of an unsigned, four-page Uniform Residential Loan Application submitted by telephone call between the Murzellos and a BANA interviewer on June 14, 2005; and 2) a letter dated July 6, 2006 to the Murzellos from a "Loan Specialist/HSS" for BANA's subsidiary, HomeFocus, LLC, which references certain enclosures, i.e., "Refinance Closing Documents" and "Important Instructions List."
¶ 5 Some twenty-one months later,
¶ 6 Appellant opposed BANA's motion for summary judgment arguing the latter "did not include any documents from Countrywide Home Loans Servicing, BAC Home Loans Servicing or Merger documents from Bank of America" and the "affidavit attached to the Motion injects other parties into the ownership chain or control of the note. There is no documentation which proves up the chain of ownership of the note and mortgage, being exclusively in plaintiff." BANA responded, arguing Appellant did not deny or dispute the material facts which support foreclosure
¶ 7 The only issue Appellant raises in her Petition in Error is that the trial court declined to follow Deutsche Bank National Trust v. Brumbaugh, 2012 OK 3, 270 P.3d 151 and progeny, which cases hold to have standing a foreclosing plaintiff must be in possession and own the promissory note sued on. She argues "the affidavit in support of [BANA's summary adjudication] motion puts into issue whether plaintiff had possession of the note when suit was filed" and because BANA elected not to provide this important history of the note, the case should have been dismissed for lack of standing.
¶ 8 "To commence a foreclosure action in Oklahoma, a plaintiff must demonstrate it has a right to enforce the note and, absent a showing of ownership, the plaintiff lacks standing." Emphasis added.) Bank of
¶ 9 We find no error with the trial court's summary adjudication. There is nothing in the allegations of BANA's Amended Petition or shown by the attached exhibits to that petition or the motion for summary judgment from which a reasonable person might infer any other entity other than BANA has had possession of the Note and Mortgage between execution and delivery to BANA on July 7, 2006 and the filing date of BANA's foreclosure on February 23, 2010. Unlike in Deutsche Bank and progeny, the plaintiff who filed this foreclosure proceeding claiming to be the "holder" of the note and mortgage is one and the same entity as that identified in the copy of the Note attached to BANA's Amended Petition and to its motion for summary judgment. Further, for purposes of determining whether BANA is the "holder" or "person entitled to enforce note," the Note specifically identifies BANA as the "person"
¶ 10 Appellant's sole argument below and on appeal for BANA's lack of "possession" is the Affidavit attached to support BANA's summary judgment motion. The first paragraph of the Affidavit, which was notarized on December 3, 2011, simply explains the affiant's then-current title/status with "[BANA], Successor by Merger to BAC Home Loans Servicing, L.P. f/k/a Countrywide Home Loans Servicing, L.P." and her personal knowledge of "Plaintiffs file," which from the inception of the foreclosure action has always been BANA. There are no facts stated in the remaining paragraphs of the Affidavit and nothing in the evidentiary material submitted to the trial court, which even remotely links the possession of the Note and/or Mortgage or the acquisition by sale or merger of the same with either of the two merged companies.
¶11 In the present case, the trial court properly granted BANA's motion for summary judgment based on the undisputed facts that BANA was the current holder of the note when it filed the foreclosure proceedings, Appellant and Deceased had failed to pay any installments since September 2009, there was no reinstatement, extension or renewal of the note, and the parties had made no agreement to delay entry of judgment. Further, Appellant neither disputed the validity of the mortgage and BANA's lien upon the subject property nor the genuineness, authenticity and execution of the Note and Mortgage. See HSBC Bank USA v. Lyon, 2012 OK 10, 276 P.3d 1002. The trial court's judgment is
JOPLIN, P.J., and BUETTNER, J., concur.