Peterson v. Cal. Reconveyance Co.
| Decision Date | 02 May 2016 |
| Docket Number | H041356 |
| Parties | MARK PETERSON, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CALIFORNIA RECONVEYANCE COMPANY et al., Defendants and Respondents. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals |
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
(Santa Cruz County Super. Ct. No. CV165101)
Appellant Mark Peterson owned property in Capitola that was commonly known and addressed as 206 Hollister Avenue 1, 2 and 3. The deed of trust for the adjacent property owned by Greg R. Flowers stated that the address for Flowers' property was "206 Hollister Avenue 1." When Flowers defaulted on his loan, respondents California Reconveyance Company (California Reconveyance) and JP Morgan Chase Bank (Chase) posted the foreclosure notices for Flowers' property on Peterson's adjacent property. The foreclosure notices stated that the address for the property to be foreclosed upon was "206 Hollister Avenue 1," but included the correct legal description and assessor's parcel number for Flowers' property.
Peterson brought the instant action against California Reconveyance and Chase to quiet title and for injunctive and declaratory relief. Peterson also alleged that defendants were liable for negligence and slander of title. The trial court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment on the grounds that Peterson lacked standing to bring this action and each cause of action lacked merit as a matter of law.
For the reasons stated below, we determine that Peterson has standing and summary adjudication of the causes of action for negligence and slander of title should be denied. We will therefore reverse the judgment and direct the trial court to enter new orders denying summary adjudication of those causes of action.
Our factual summary is drawn from the parties' separate statements of fact and the evidence they submitted in connection with the motion for summary judgment.
In 2006, Peterson owned property in Capitola commonly known as 206 Hollister Avenue. At that time, Peterson's property included three cottages commonly known and addressed as 206 Hollister Avenue 1, 2 and 3. The recorded description of the property is "Lot 7 in Block X, as shown upon that certain Map entitled, 'Capitola', filed for record in the Office of the County Recorder of Capitola City, County of Santa Cruz, State of California, on April 26, 1888 in Map Book 10, Page 13, Santa Cruz County Records." (Boldface added.)
In 2007, the property adjacent to Peterson's property was owned by Flowers. The deed of trust recorded on July 31, 2007, indicates that Flowers refinanced the property with a loan from Washington Mutual Bank and states that the property's address is "206 Hollister Avenue 1." The deed of trust also contains the following legal description of the property: "Lot 5, in Block X, as shown upon that certain map entitled, 'Capitola', filed for record in the office of the County Recorder on April 26, 1888, in Map Book 10, page 13, Santa Cruz County records." (Boldface added.)
A notice of default and election to sell under deed of trust was recorded on Flowers' property by California Reconveyance on May 12, 2009. The notice of default stated that Flowers had defaulted on his loan from Washington Mutual Bank that wassecured by a deed of trust on property described as "206 Hollister Avenue 1, Capitola, CA 95010." On August 18, 2009, California Reconveyance recorded a notice of trustee's sale, which stated that the street address of the property to be sold was "206 Hollister Avenue 1, Capitola, CA 95010" and the legal description was "Lot 5, in Block X, as shown upon that certain map entitled, 'Capitola', filed for record in the office of the County Recorder on April 26, 1888, in Map Book 10, page 13, Santa Cruz County Records."
Sometime during the summer of 2009, the foreclosure notices for Flowers' property, which stated a street address of 206 Hollister Avenue 1, were physically posted on Peterson's adjacent property. One of the cottages on Peterson's property had a commonly known street address of 206 Hollister Avenue 1. The foreclosure notices for Flowers' property were again physically posted on Peterson's property in August 2012.
Flowers' property and Peterson's property had slightly different assessor's parcel numbers, as shown in the City of Capitola's records. The assessor's parcel number for Peterson's property is 036-125-09. The assessor's parcel number for Flowers' property is 036-125-10.
On December 13, 2012, Mark Wheeler, the City of Capitola's building official, sent an email advising the relevant government agencies that the two properties had different street addresses. Wheeler stated that the street address for the property with assessor's parcel number 036-125-09 (Peterson's property) was 204 Hollister Avenue, and the address for the property with assessor's parcel number 036-125-10 (Flowers' property) was 206 Hollister Avenue.
On October 11, 2007, Peterson filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition. Peterson's Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceeding was converted to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding on March 12, 2010. Peterson filed his first amended schedules A and B in his Chapter 7bankruptcy proceeding on May 25, 2010.1 The first amended schedules did not list the instant lawsuit, which was filed in 2009, as an asset.
In June 2010 an order was filed in Peterson's Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding confirming the bankruptcy trustee's abandonment of "affirmative claims asserted by the Debtor or that may be asserted by the Debtor or his estate against any party associated with a loan secured by a deed of trust on 206 Hollister Avenue, Capitola, California, in favor of New Century Mortgage Corporation, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, and Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC [Peterson's lenders]." The order did not mention the instant lawsuit or any claim that Peterson might have against Flowers' lenders arising from their posting of the foreclosure notices for Flowers' property on Peterson's adjacent property in 2009.
A settlement agreement and mutual release was filed in Peterson's Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding on September 5, 2012. The settlement agreement states that Peterson was in default under the deed of trust recorded on property he owned "commonly known as 206 Hollister Ave., Capitola, California" that had a legal description of "Lot 7, in Block X, as shown upon that certain map entitled 'Capitola', filed for record in the Office of the County Recorder of Capitola City, County of Santa Cruz, State of California, on April 26, 1888, in Map Book 10, Page 13, Santa Cruz County Records."
Under the settlement agreement, the claim made against Peterson's bankruptcy estate by Carrington Mortgage Services LLC, for payment in full of all amounts due under Peterson's promissory note, was to be withdrawn upon the conveyance of the property commonly known as 206 Hollister Avenue to Hollister Holdings I, LLC(Hollister Holdings) and upon specified payments to Deutsche Bank, among others. The lenders who financed Hollister Holdings' $700,000 purchase of Peterson's property from his bankruptcy estate obtained a preliminary title report, which did not reference any of the recorded documents pertaining to the foreclosure of Flowers' property.
Hollister Holdings recorded the grant deed for the property commonly known as "206 Hollister Avenue, Units 1, 2 & 3, Capitola, CA 95010" on September 28, 2012. The grant deed states that the Chapter 7 trustee for Peterson's bankruptcy estate transferred all rights, title, and interest in 206 Hollister Avenue, Units 1, 2, and 3, to Hollister Holdings.
On December 7, 2012, Peterson was dismissed from the Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings. In 2014, Peterson purchased the property commonly known as "206 Hollister Avenue, Units 1, 2 & 3" from Hollister Holdings, as shown by the grant deed recorded on May 20, 2014.
The operative complaint is the second amended complaint (the complaint). The causes of action asserted against defendants California Reconveyance and Chase include declaratory relief, injunctive relief, negligence, slander of title, and quiet title.
In the cause of action for declaratory relief, Peterson sought declarations that the deed of trust securing Flowers' property did not secure Peterson's property at 206 Hollister Avenue 1 and that Chase could not foreclose on Peterson's property. Peterson also sought to enjoin the foreclosure sale under the deed of trust that had been scheduled for September 15, 2009.
In the negligence cause of action, Peterson alleged that defendants had carelessly drafted the deed of trust for Flowers' property with an erroneous street address of 206 Hollister Avenue 1 and had posted the notice of trustee's sale and notice of default on the wrong property.
The cause of action for slander of title alleged that defendants had recklessly recorded both an erroneous notice of default and an erroneous notice of trustee's sale on Peterson's property, which was defamatory since neither Washington Mutual nor Chase was the lender for Peterson's Hollister Avenue property. Peterson sought to quiet his title in 206 Hollister Avenue 1 because one or more of defendants had claimed an adverse interest.
Defendants filed a "renewed" motion for summary judgment, or, in the alternative, summary adjudication in March 2014. Defendants acknowledged that their previous motion for summary judgment was denied in 2012, but asserted that a renewed motion was proper under Code of Civil Procedure section 437c, subdivision (f)(2)2 due to newly...
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