Macklin v. Hollingsworth

• Decision Date: 08 September 2014
• Docket Number: No. 2:10-cv-1097 MCE KJN PS,2:10-cv-1097 MCE KJN PS
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California
• Parties: JAMES L. MACKLIN, Plaintiff, v. MATTHEW HOLLINGSWORTH, et al., Defendants.

JAMES L. MACKLIN, Plaintiff, v. MATTHEW HOLLINGSWORTH, et al., Defendants.

No. 2:10-cv-1097 MCE KJN PS

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

September 8, 2014

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

On April 15, 2014, plaintiff James L. Macklin ("plaintiff") filed a motion for leave to amend his complaint for a second time and a proposed Second Amended Complaint ("SAC"). (ECF Nos. 40, 43.) On July 1, 2014, the court granted plaintiff's motion for leave to amend and the proposed SAC became the operative complaint in this action. (ECF No. 42.) In the SAC, plaintiff alleges that defendants Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc. ("Select Portfolio"), Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo"),¹ Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. ("Deutsche Bank"), and Quality Loan Service Corporation ("Quality Loan") committed breach of contract and violations of several Federal and California statutes governing lending and other business practices inconnection with the origination, underwriting, servicing, and foreclosure of plaintiff's residential home loan. (ECF No. 43.) Presently before the court is defendants Select Portfolio, Deutsche Bank, and Quality Loan's² (collectively "defendants") motion to dismiss plaintiff's SAC pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.³ (ECF No. 45.) Plaintiff filed an opposition and defendants filed a reply. (ECF Nos. 52, 56, 59.)

The court heard this matter on its August 21, 2014 law and motion calendar. Plaintiff James Macklin appeared on his own behalf. Attorney Robert Bleicher appeared on behalf of defendants Deutsche Bank and Select Portfolio. Attorney Megan Boyd appeared telephonically on behalf of defendant Quality Loan. Attorney Robert Campbell appeared telephonically on behalf of defendant Wells Fargo.

The undersigned has fully considered the parties' briefs, the parties' oral arguments, and appropriate portions of the record. For the reasons that follow, it is recommended that defendants' motion to dismiss be granted and that defendants Deutsche Bank, Select Portfolio, and Quality Loan be dismissed from this action with prejudice.

I. Parties' Requests for Judicial Notice

As an initial matter, the court addresses defendants' and plaintiff's respective requests for the court to take judicial notice of certain documents. (ECF Nos. 46, 47, 48, 53, 63.) Pursuant to Federal Rules of Evidence 201, "the court may judicially notice a fact that is not subject to reasonable dispute because it: (1) is generally known within the trial court's territorial jurisdiction; or (2) can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannotreasonably be questioned."

Generally, a court may not consider material beyond the complaint in ruling on a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Lee v. City of Los Angeles, 250 F.3d 668, 688 (9th Cir. 2001). "However, '[a] court may take judicial notice of 'matters of public record' without converting a motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment,' as long as the facts noticed are not 'subject to reasonable dispute.'" Intri-Plex Technologies, Inc. v. Crest Grp., Inc., 499 F.3d 1048, 1052 (9th Cir. 2007) (quoting Lee, 250 F.3d at 689 (citation omitted)); see also United States v. Ritchie, 342 F.3d 903, 908-09 (9th Cir. 2003).

A. Defendants' Requests

Defendants request that the court take judicial notice of 31 different documents. (ECF No. 46.) In particular, defendants request that the court take judicial notice of the following: (1) the docket in Placer County Superior Court Case No. SCV 26905 (the "Superior Court Action"); (2) the docket in the present action; (3) the docket in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California Case No. 10-44610 (the "Bankruptcy Case"); (4) the docket in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California, Case No. 11002024 (the "Adversary Proceeding"); (5) the docket in United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Case No. 2-12-cv-01752-GEB-JFM (the "Withdrawal Case"); (6) the notice of default on plaintiff's loan, recorded in the Placer County Recorder's Office on December 8, 2008; (7) the substitution of trustee document for plaintiff's loan, recorded in the Placer County Recorder's Office on January 30, 2008; (8) the notice of trustee's sale for plaintiff's property, recorded in the Placer County Recorder's Office on November 25, 2009; (9) the assignment of deed of trust document for plaintiff's loan, recorded in the Placer County Recorder's Office on November 26, 2009 (10) the notice of trustee's sale for plaintiff's property, recorded in the Placer County Recorder's Office on November 25, 2009; (11) the trustee's deed upon sale for plaintiff's property, recorded in the Placer County Recorder's Office on December 21, 2009; (12) the complaint in the Superior Court Action; (13) the first amended complaint in the Civil Action; (14) the complaint in the Adversary Proceeding; (15) the order for preliminary injunction in the Adversary Proceeding; (16) the first amended complaint in the AdversaryProceeding; (17) the judgment for Deutsche Bank National Trust in the Unlawful Detainer Action; (18) the memorandum of decision granting in part and denying in part Deutsche Bank's motion to dismiss the first amended complaint in the Adversary Proceeding; (19) Deutsche Bank's motion to withdraw the bankruptcy reference, filed in the Withdrawal Case; (20) plaintiff's opposition to the motion to withdraw the bankruptcy reference, filed in the Adversary Proceeding; (21) the order denying the motion to withdrawal the bankruptcy reference in the Withdrawal Case; (22) the appellate opinion affirming trial court's judgment for Deutsche Bank in the Unlawful Detainer Action; (23) the proposed second amended complaint in the Adversary Proceeding; (24) the Order denying plaintiff's motion for leave to amend to file a second amended complaint in the Adversary Proceeding; (25) the minute order denying plaintiff's motion to file a second amended complaint in the Adversary Proceeding; (26) the memorandum opinion and decision granting summary judgment for Deutsche Bank in the Adversary Proceeding; (27) the order granting summary judgment for Deutsche Bank in the Adversary Proceeding; (28) the judgment for Deutsche Bank in the Adversary Proceeding; (29) the minute order denying plaintiff's motion to vacate judgment in the Adversary Proceeding; (30) the civil minutes denying plaintiff's motion to vacate judgment in the Adversary Proceeding; and (31) the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel order dismissing plaintiff's appeal of judgment in the Adversary Proceeding. (Id.)

Because defendants' requests for judicial notice for the documents filed in the Bankruptcy Case, the Adversary Proceeding, the Withdrawal Case, and plaintiff's appeal from the Adversary Proceeding involve matters of public record in related judicial proceedings, these requests are granted. See Biggs v. Terhune, 334 F.3d 910, 916 n.3 (9th Cir. 2003) ("Materials from a proceeding in another tribunal are appropriate for judicial notice."), overruled on other grounds by Hayward v. Marshall, 603 F.3d 546, 555 (9th Cir. 2010); Headwaters Inc. v. United States Forest Serv., 399 F.3d 1047, 1051 n.3 (9th Cir. 2005) (taking judicial notice of the docket in a related case). Specifically, the court grants defendants' request for judicial notice as to the documents filed as defendants' Exhibits 3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 29, 30, and 31 to their request for judicial notice. (ECF Nos. 46-3, 46-4, 46-5, 46-14, 46-15, 46-16, 47-2, 47-3, 47-4, 47-5, 47-7, 47-8, 48-1, 48-2, 48-3, 48-4, 48-5, 48-6, 48-7, 48-8.) The court takes judicial notice of these documents filed in these earlier actions for the purpose of recognizing the judicial acts taken and the subject matter of the plaintiff's adversary proceeding before the Bankruptcy Court. See Bank v. Magna Bank of Missouri, 894 F. Supp. 1337, 1341 (E.D. Mo. 1995) aff'd, 92 F.3d 743 (8th Cir. 1996) (taking judicial notice of records from prior related bankruptcy proceeding to recognize the judicial acts taken and the subject matter of that prior proceeding). Such facts are not reasonably in dispute by the parties.⁴ However, the court declines to take judicial notice of any of the requested documents not listed above because the court finds that judicial notice of those documents is not necessary to decide the present motion to dismiss.

B. Plaintiff's Requests

Plaintiff also filed multiple requests for judicial notice. In his initial filing, plaintiff requests that the court judicially notice the following five documents: (1) a Brief by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as Amicus Curiae in Support of Plaintiff-Appellant and Reversal filed in Rosenfield v. HSBC Bank, USA, Case No. 10-1442, in the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals; (2) the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Merritt v. Countrywide Fin. Corp., 09-17678, 2014 WL 3451299 (9th Cir. July 16, 2014); (3) a portion of the record for the Accredited Mortgage Loan Trust Series 2006-2 available on the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's website; (4) a loan application form plaintiff purports to have used in conjunction with obtaining his home loan; and (5) a Truth in Lending Disclosure form purportedly signed by plaintiff during his home loan application process and plaintiff's federal taxreturn for the 2005 tax year. (Id.) Defendants filed an opposition to all of plaintiff's requests in this filing except for his request for judicial notice of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Merritt. (ECF No. 57.) On August 21, 2014, just prior to the hearing on defendants' motion to dismiss, plaintiff also filed a supplemental request for judicial notice requesting that the court take judicial notice of the United States Security and Exchange...