Angel Laychock v. Wells Fargo Home Mtg

NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
_____________
No. 09-2262
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ANGEL LAYCHOCK,
Appellant
v.
WELLS FARGO HOME MORTGAGE;
WACHOVIA BANK, NA
_____________
On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania
(D.C. Civ. No. 07-04478)
District Judge: Juan R. Sanchez
Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a)
on October 5, 2010
Before: SCIRICA, FUENTES, AND JORDAN, Circuit Judges.
(Opinion Filed: November 1, 2010)
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OPINION OF THE COURT
_____________________________
FUENTES, Circuit Judge:
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Angel Laychock brought this action in federal court, alleging fifteen claims
against Defendant Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (AWells Fargo@). Wells Fargo had
obtained a default judgment against Laychock in a separate foreclosure action in the
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The District Court ultimately dismissed all of
Laychock=s claims, pursuant to the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, res judicata, and relevant
statutes of limitations. Laychock subsequently reinstated her mortgage and the
Defendants vacated the default in the state court action. The District Court then denied
Laychock=s motions to amend her complaint and for relief from judgment. Laychock
appeals the dismissal of her claims and the denials of her two motions. We will affirm. 1
I.
Because we write primarily for the parties, we set forth only the facts and history
that are relevant to our conclusion. Angel Laychock obtained a mortgage from Wells
Fargo. Laychock arranged for bi-weekly automatic payments toward this mortgage from
her bank, Wachovia. Laychock alleges that in December 2006 Wells Fargo began to
withdraw additional bi-weekly payments from her account. She claims that, as a result,
she incurred insufficient funds and late fee charges. Wells Fargo investigated and
reversed three of seven duplicative payments and contacted credit reporting agencies to
make them aware of the error.
1
The District Court had subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ' 1332.
We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. ' 1291.
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In July 2007, Wachovia, which had become a successor-in-interest to Wells Fargo,
filed a foreclosure action against Laychock, alleging she had not made a monthly
payment since April 1, 2007. Wachovia obtained a default judgment. Laychock
subsequently filed a petition to open the default, in which she claimed that Defendants
had double debited her account and did not give her proper credit for amounts debited.
Before receiving a decision on her petition in state court, Laychock filed this
action in federal court, claiming wrongful foreclosure and damages for incorrect credit
reports. Her initial Complaint included fifteen counts, but on appeal she raises only her
claim under the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (Athe
UTPCPL@). As this case was pending in the District Court, the state court denied
Laychock=s petition to open the default. Laychock chose not to appeal the state court=s
decision.
The District Court dismissed Laychock=s Complaint, finding that it lacked
jurisdiction, under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, to hear most of Laychock=s claims B
including those brought under the UTPCPL B and that res judicata precluded her claims. 2
To satisfy the UTPCPL, Laychock must prove that Defendants engaged in Afraudulent or
deceptive conduct which creates a likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding.@ 73
Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. ' 201-2. The Court found that, in rejecting Laychock=s petition to
2
Rooker-Feldman Aprecludes lower federal courts from exercising appellate
jurisdiction over final state-court judgments.@ In re Madera, 586 F.3d 228, 232 (3d Cir.
2009) (internal quotations and citation omitted).
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open the default, the state court had rejected Laychock=s assertions that the Defendants
double debited her account. Accordingly, the Court concluded that Laychock=s claims for
money damages, predicated on the alleged double debiting and wrongful foreclosure,
would require it to find that the state court=s decision was wrong, in violation of the
Rooker-Feldman doctrine. In the alternative, the court found that res judicata applied.
Finally, certain other claims, which are not at issue in this appeal, were time-barred.
II.
We exercise plenary review over a District Court=s decision granting a motion to
dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Edgar v. Avaya, 503 F.3d 340,
344 (3d Cir. 2007). We Aaccept all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint as true and
draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff.@ Id. We review the decision to
deny leave to amend for abuse of discretion. Winer Family Trust v. Queen, 503 F.3d 319,
330-31 (3d Cir. 2007). Denial of a motion for relief from judgment, pursuant to Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), is also reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard.
Budget Blinds, Inc. v. White, 536 F.3d 244, 251 (3d Cir. 2008).
Plaintiff seeks damages based on a Awrongful foreclosure@ and the double debiting
of her bank account, which allegedly resulted in insufficient funds and late fee charges.
Any claim relying on allegations of wrongful foreclosure must be rejected under the
Rooker-Feldman doctrine. As we recently declared, Athere are four requirements that
must be met for the Rooker-Feldman doctrine to apply: (1) the federal plaintiff lost in
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state court; (2) the plaintiff >complain[s] of injuries caused by [the] state-court
judgments=; (3) those judgments were rendered before the federal suit was filed; and (4)
the plaintiff is inviting the district court to review and reject the state judgments.@ Great
W. Mining & Mineral Co. v. Fox Rothschild LLP, B F.3d B , 2010 WL 3035466, at *6 (3d
Cir. Aug. 5, 2010). In a recent case that also involved a state-court foreclosure
proceeding, In re Madera, we found that Rooker-Feldman precluded us from exercising
jurisdiction where, as here, to grant the requested relief the District Court would have
been required to Adetermine that the state court judgment was erroneously entered.@ 586
F.3d at 232 (internal quotations and citation omitted). All four of the requirements we
outlined in Great Western are satisfied here and the relief from a Awrongful foreclosure@
requested by Laychock would have required the District Court to determine that the state
court erroneously entered judgment. Accordingly, we find Laychock=s claims based on
wrongful foreclosure barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.
The District Court also found that Plaintiff=s claims for damages due to the double
debiting of her account were barred, under both Rooker-Feldman and the doctrine of
claim preclusion. We do not need to address the Rooker-Feldman argument because we
agree with the District Court that these claims are precluded. Pennsylvania law regarding
claim preclusion essentially mirrors the federal doctrine. ARes judicata, or claim
preclusion, is a doctrine by which a former adjudication bars a later action on all or part
of the claim which was the subject of the first action. Any final, valid judgment on the
merits by a court of competent jurisdiction precludes any future suit between the parties
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or their privies on the same cause of action.@ Balent v. City of Wilkes-Barre, 669 A.2d
309, 313 (Pa. 1995) (citing Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 94 (1980)). The doctrine
applies not only to claims that are actually litigated, but also to those that could have been
litigated in the first proceeding, so long as they were part of the same cause of action. Id.Applying Pennsylvania law in Riverside Memorial Mausoleum, Inc. v. UMET Trust, 581
F.2d 62, 66-67 (3d Cir. 1978), we held that res judicata bars consideration in a second
suit of defenses raised in a petition to open, as well as defenses that the party Amight
have, but did not raise.@ Plaintiff raised the issue of double debiting in her petition to
open the default judgment, presenting it as a defense to the foreclosure action. (App. at
60.) Accordingly, we affirm the District Court=s conclusion that Laychock is precluded
from bringing these claims in federal court.
The cases relied upon by Laychock do not alter our analysis. Laychock is correct
that, applying Pennsylvania preclusion doctrine, we have rejected the view that a Acourt=s
refusal to open [a] default judgment[] constituted a judgment on the merits which
precluded relitigation of the issue@ when the issue for which preclusion was sought was
not Aessential@ to the judgment. In re Graves, 33 F.3d 242, 247 (3d Cir. 1994). However,
in this case the District Court found, and we concur, that claim preclusion and not issue
preclusion bars Laychock=s claims.
Following the dismissal of her federal complaint, Plaintiff reinstated her mortgage.
At that time, Wells Fargo filed to vacate the default. Plaintiff then filed a motion in
federal court to reinstate her claims, based on the vacatur of the default. She sought to
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invoke Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(5), which permits relief when a Ajudgment .
. . is based on an earlier judgment has been reversed or vacated.@ Laychock argued that
with the state court judgment vacated, Rooker-Feldman no longer applied. Laychock
also filed a separate motion for leave to file an amended complaint. Oral argument was
held and at argument Plaintiff dropped all of her claims except those under the UTPCPL.
The District Court denied Laychock=s motion for relief from judgment, on the
grounds that she had not demonstrated Aexceptional circumstances@ that would merit
discretionary relief under Rule 60(b)(5). Boughner v. Sec=y of Health, Educ. & Welfare,
572 F.2d 976, 977 (3d Cir. 1978). The Aextraordinary circumstances standard applicable
to the trial court=s exercise of discretion is a strict one@ and our review is
Acommensurately narrow.@ Inmates of Allegheny County Jail v. Wecht, 754 F.2d 120,
127 (3d Cir. 1985). Laychock cured her mortgage default, which caused the Defendants
to request that the default judgment be vacated, within eight days of the District Court=s
dismissal of her claims. She then returned to the Court, seeking relief under Rule
60(b)(5). We agree with the District Court that this course of action did not constitute the
sort of Aextraordinary circumstances@ that merit relief under Rule 60 and accordingly
affirm its decision on this issue. The District Court also denied Plaintiff=s motion to
amend her complaint, finding it would be futile. Laychock sought leave to amend her
complaint so as to adequately state a claim on three causes of action that are no longer at
issue on appeal. Moreover, Laychock=s attorney conceded at argument on the motion that
even if given leave to amend, she would be unable to plead adequate facts to support
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these claims. (App. 238-40.) Laychock=s brief provides no argument on this issue,
merely quoting applicable legal standards. Furthermore, we have held where, as here, a
party fails to provide a draft amended complaint, that this provides an adequate basis for
denying a request to amend. Lake v. Arnold, 232 F.3d 360, 374 (3d Cir. 2000).
Accordingly, the denial of the motion to amend was not an abuse of discretion.
III.
For the foregoing reasons we will affirm the District Court.
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