Jestina L. Pickett

United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. California

Jestina L. Pickett

Trial Court Opinion

1 UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT 2 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 3 4 In re: ) Case No. 09-28900-C-7 ) 5 ) Docket Control No. ALG-1 JESTINA PICKETT, ) 6 ) Date: January 12, 2023 Debtor. ) Time: 10:00 a.m. 7 ________________________________) Dept: C (Courtroom 35) 8 9 MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER 10 In a reported decision, this court rejected, without 11 prejudice, the application by Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc., 12 (SPS) for payment of $228,288.47 in unclaimed funds on deposit in 13 the United States Treasury pursuant to

11 U.S.C. § 347

(a). That 14 decision also determined that a debtor cannot leapfrog the 15 distribution scheme of

11 U.S.C. § 726

and does not become 16 entitled to unclaimed funds merely because a payee on a chapter 7 17 trustee’s dividend check issued on account of an allowed claim 18 has not come forward timely to assert its rights to the funds. 19 In re Jestina Pickett,

632 B.R. 78

,

70 Bankr. Ct. Dec. 154

20 (Bankr. E.D. Cal. 2021). 21 At that time, this court was not persuaded that SPS had 22 provided “full proof” of being the “rightful owner” of the funds 23 as required by

28 U.S.C. § 2042

. The circumstances of the 24 $228,288.47 chapter 7 dividend as they then appeared, based on 25 the trustee’s sale of real property for which recording of the 26 deed of trust had been bungled, suggested there might be other 27 claimants. Accordingly, the SPS application was denied without 28 prejudice. 1 Now supported by a better record, SPS re-applies for payment 2 of the $228,288.47 that is on deposit in the Treasury pursuant to 3 § 347(a) and subject to disposal under Chapter 129 of Title 28 – 4 i.e.,

28 U.S.C. §§ 2041-2045

. 5 SPS submitted the following documents to make its record in 6 support of “full proof” of its status as the “rightful owner” of 7 the unclaimed funds as required by

28 U.S.C. § 2042

: 8 (1) Promissory Note; 9 (2) Deed of Trust; 10 (3) Face Page of Pooling and Servicing Agreement between Mortgage Trustee and Loan Servicer; 11 (4) Loan Modification Agreement; 12 (5) Consent Order by Board of Governors of the Federal 13 Reserve System;

14 (6) Notice of Servicing Transfer; 15 (7) Original Application of Unclaimed Funds by SPS; 16 (8) Limited Power of Attorney; 17 (9) Subservicing Agreement between Servicer and Subservicer; 18 (10) Notice of Servicing Transfer; and 19 (11) Declaration from Title Insurance Company. 20 SPS also provided under seal for inspection in camera an 21 unredacted version of the servicer/subservicer agreement. 22 This court has reviewed all of the materials provided by SPS 23 and is now persuaded that SPS has provided “full proof” it is the 24 “rightful owner” of the unclaimed funds for purposes of 28 U.S.C. 25 § 2042. 26 IT IS ORDERED that the application of Select Portfolio 27 Servicing, Inc., for distribution of the $228,288.47 on deposit 28 in the Treasury is GRANTED. 1 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Clerk is directed to pay $228,288.47 from the Unclaimed Funds to: 3 Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc. Attn: Shariyu Preston Corp Legal 4 3217 S. Decker Lake Drive Salt Lake City, UT 84119

6 The funds may be disbursed only after 14 calendar days from 7 ||) the entry on docket of this order to allow for the appeal period 8} to expire. 21 patea: January 17, 2023 10 11 | \ re 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

1 INSTRUCTIONS TO CLERK OF COURT SERVICE LIST 2 The Clerk of Court is instructed to send the attached Order 3 via first class mail, to the following parties: 4 Jestina L. Pickett 232 West Lucita Way 5 Mountain House, CA 95391 6 Jestina Pickett 28 E. Legacy Dr. 7 Tracy, CA 95391 8 David Van Dyke 2111 West March Lane, Suite B300 9 Stockton, CA 95207 10 Rick Morin 555 Capitol Mall Suite 750 11 Sacramento, CA 95814 12 Arnold Graff Wright, Finlay & Zak, LLP 13 4665 MacArthur Court, Suite 200 Newport Beach, CA 92660 14 Dana Suntag 15 Herum Crabtree Suntag 5757 Pacific Avenue, Suite 222 16 Stockton, CA 95207 17 Gary Farrar PO Box 576097 18 Modesto, CA 95357 19 Office of the U.S. Trustee 501 I Street, Suite 7-500 20 Sacramento, CA 95814 21 Arthur Unger Brighton Capital Corporation 22 8185 Via Ancho Road Boca Raton, FL 33488 23 24 25 26 27 28

Reference

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