Mayotte v. U.S. Bank National Association
Opinion
, On this appeal the parties have asked us to determine how, or even whether, an important—but subtle and often confusing—doctrine limiting federal-court jurisdiction should apply to a unique Colorado procedure for “nonjudicial” foreclosure of mortgages. The jurisdictional doctrine is the
Rooker-Feldman
doctrine, which forbids lower federal courts from reviewing state-court civil judgments. Colorado’s unique procedure is Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure 120, which requires creditors pursuing nonjudicial foreclosure to first
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obtain a ruling by a Colorado trial court that there is a reasonable probability that a default exists.
See generally
Andrea Bloom,
Foreclosure by Private Trustee: Now Is the Time for
Colorado,
I. BACKGROUND
Plaintiff Mary Mayotte was the debtor on a note held by U.S. Bank, NA. The note was secured by a deed of trust assigning a security interest in her home to the public trustee of Denver County and creating a power of sale in the trustee. Wells Fargo serviced the loan for U.S. Bank. One allegation is that Plaintiff contacted Wells Fargo to modify her loan, that Wells Fargo told her she needed to miss three payments to secure a modification, and that she eventually took this advice. Rather than granting her a modification, however, Wells Fargo placed her in default. She further alleges that the defendants fabricated documents, that their actions rendered her title unmarketable, that they have no ownership interest in her promissory note or property, that they have been unjustly enriched by accepting payments not due them, that they damaged her credit standing, and that they violated the. Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act,
In late 2014, proceedings to sell the home to'pay the note were commenced in Colorado state court under Rule 120. Before the sale, Plaintiff (proceeding pro sé) filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. In addition to seeking an injunction against the sale, she asked for damages resulting from the defendants’ actions, an accounting for the money she had paid to the defendants, cancellation of the promissory note and deed of trust, and a declaration that the defendants have no interest in her home.
The court took n,o action before the sale, so (still proceeding pro se) she amended her complaint and later filed a second amended complaint (the Complaint), which is now the operative complaint. The factual allegations of the Complaint were essentially the same as those in the original complaint, and most of: the relief sought was also the same, except that she no longer sought an injunction to prevent the sale. 1
The district court dismissed Plaintiffs claim under RESPA for failure to state a claim; and, perhaps misled by unpublished decisions of this court, it dismissed the rest of the claims without prejudice under
Rooker-Feldman
on the ground that the claims “effectively ask[ed] the [cjourt to unwind the results of the Rule Í20 proceedings.” Aplt. App. at 128. We affirm the district court’s dismissal of Plaintiffs claim under RESPA because she offers no argument on the issue.
See Franklin Savings
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Corp. v. United States,
II. COLORADO’S NONJUDICIAL FORECLOSURE REGIME
Nonjudicial foreclosures are available in 33 states and the District of Columbia.
See
Grant S. Nelson et al.,
Real Estate Finance Law
§ 7:20 n.1 (6th ed. 2014). Nonjudicial foreclosures generally allow a creditor to foreclose on a debtor’s property more efficiently and less expensively than do judicial foreclosures.
See
Colorado, however, has a unique process—requiring a public trustee and the involvement of a judge.
See
If the court makes the required findings and the sale is conducted in accordance with the order authorizing the sale, “the court shall thereupon enter an order approving the sale.” Colo. R. Civ. P. 120(g). Although the applicable Colorado statute provides that after the sale the title to- the property vests in the purchaser, subject to rights of redemption,
see
The gist of a Rule 120 decision is therefore simply that the sale of the property can proceed unless some other court, which need pay no attention to the findings by the Rule 120 court, decides to halt or otherwise modify the sale. And the rights created by the order approving the sale are limited to clearing title to the property. There do not appear to be any decisions by the Colorado appellate courts permitting challenges to whether a Rule 120 sale vested title in the purchaser.
Cf. Ragsdale,
III. THE ROOKER-FELDMAN DOCTRINE
“The
Rooker-Feldman
doctrine ... provides that only the Supreme Court has jurisdiction to hear appeals from final state eourt judgments.”
Bear v. Patton,
Over 80 years later, the Supreme Court revisited the
Rooker-Feldman
doctrine in
Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp. [SABIC],
In
Campbell v. City of Spencer,
Following the Supreme Court’s lead in
Exxon Mobil,
we recognized that “[t]he essential ‘point is that barred claims are those ‘complaining of injuries caused by state-court judgments.’ In other words, an element of the claim must be that the state court wrongfully entered its judgment.”
These precedents establish that Rooker-Feldman does not deprive a federal court of jurisdiction to hear a claim just because it could result in a judgment inconsistent with a state-court judgment. There is no jurisdictional bar to litigating the same dispute on the same facts that led to the state judgment. For example, there is jurisdiction to. litigate in-, federal court the parties’ claims arising out of an automobile accident even if the same claims had- already been litigated in state court. To be sure, the judgments in the two cases could be inconsistent; but that is a problem to be resolved under preclusion doctrine, not Rooker-Feldman. A party’s claims in the later federal action could be barred by claim preclusion or issue preclusion-. But the federal court has jurisdiction to determine whether there is such a bar..
What
is
prohibited under
Rooker-Feldman
is a federal action that "tries to
modify or set aside
a state-court judgment because the state proceedings should not have led to that judgment.
See Exxon Mobil,
IV. APPLICATION TO THIS CASE
Plaintiff seeks title to her home and compensation for damages caused by the defendants’ alleged misconduct. Are these claims barred by Rooker-Feldman? We think not.
Rooker-Feldman
can bar a federal-court claim by Plaintiff only if “an element of the claim is that [a prior state-court] judgment was
wrongful.” Campbell,
, An example may elucidate the point. Assume that two suits are filed simultaneously in federal and state court. In federal court, X sues Y to quiet title to Black-acre in favor of X. In state court, Y sues X to quiet title to Blackacre in favor of Y. The federal suit is not challenging any state-court judgment, so it is not barred by
Rooker-Feldman.
Even if the state litigation results in a judgment in favor of Y while the federal suit is pending,
Rooker-Feldman
does not keep the federal case from proceeding, although the result in the federal suit may well be affected by the preclusive effect of the state-court judgment. This is not simply a matter of timing. Even if the federal suit had been brought after judgment was entered in the state litigation, the federal suit would not be barred by
Rooker-Feldman
unless “an element of the claim [was] that the state court wrongfully entered its judgment.”
Campbell,
In this case, to proceed on her federal-court claims for damages and to obtain a declaration that she has title to her home, Plaintiff need not set aside, or challenge in any way, the Rule 120' decision. All the facts she alleges in the Complaint to obtain such relief preexisted the Rule 120 proceedings. She can prove her claims without any reference to the state-court proceedings. The present litigation thus does not “complain[ ] of injuries caused by [the Rule 120 decision].”
Campbell,
We therefore must set aside the district court’s Rooker-Feldman dismissal of all of Plaintiffs claims except the RESPA claim (which was dismissed on the merits). We express no view on the merits of those claims. In particular, we leave to the district court in the first instance to determine whether the Rule 120 proceedings and the sale of Plaintiffs home have any effect (preclusive, equitable, or otherwise) on the resolution of her claims or the relief to which she is entitled.
V. CONCLUSION
We AFFIRM the district court’s dismissal’ of Plaintiffs claim under RESPA. We REVERSE the district court’s jurisdictional dismissal of the other claims and REMAND to the district court for further proceedings. We GRANT Defendant’s motion to strike Plaintiffs response to its Fed. R. App. P. 28(j) letter.
. Plaintiff also claimed that the Rule 120 proceeding is unconstitutional if it is a final judicial decision with preclusion and Rooker-Feldman effects. On appeal, however, she makes clear that she is not pursuing any claim based on the Rule 120 proceeding if we overturn the Rooker-Feldman bar to her other claims. We therefore do not address these constitutional claims, even though statéd in the Complaint.
. Rule 120(d) provides:
Neither the granting nor the denial of a motion under this Rule shall constitute an appealable order or judgment. The granting of any such motion shall be without prejudice to the right of any person aggrieved to seek injunctive or other relief in any court of competent jurisdiction, and the denial of any such motion shall be without prejudice to any right or remedy of the moving party.
. Our decision in
In re Miller,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Mary M. MAYOTTE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, as Trustee FOR STRUCTURED ASSET INVESTMENT LOAN TRUST MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2006-4; Wells Fargo Bank N.A.; America's Servicing Company, and All Persons or Entities Claiming Any Legal or Equitable Right, Title, Estate, Lien or Interest in the Property Described in This Complaint Adverse to Plaintiff's Title, or Any Cloud Upon Plaintiff's Title Thereto; Debra Johnson, Public Trustee, Defendants-Appellees
- Cited By
- 60 cases
- Status
- Published