Opinion ID: 2230384
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: David Welton

Text: The district court made the following findings and determination with respect to the claim of Welton: Although the Court finds that David Welton entered into the transaction by fraud of the Defendants, the Court finds that... Welton did not incur any damages by the fraudulent actions of the Defendants. After the mortgage foreclosure was stopped by Mid America in April of 1999 for approximately $2,000.00, Plaintiff resided in the residence and paid Defendant approximately $500.00 per month. In March of 2001, Plaintiff moved out of this residence and moved into the residence of his mother. Soon thereafter, Plaintiff quit making payments to Mid America and then Mid America quit making the mortgage payments to the mortgage company, WMC of California. The mortgage company then proceeded with foreclosure. The Plaintiff was notified of the foreclosure and the foreclosure sale was completed by the mortgage company. The Plaintiff had ... personal property in the residence at the time of the foreclosure, which he did not recover. Any responsibility for that property would not have been with Defendants. As such, Plaintiff incurred no damages in this matter and judgment is not awarded to him as a result of the fraudulent actions of the Defendants. In his cross-appeal, Welton contends that the district court erred in determining that he failed to prove damages. In a bench trial of a law action, the court, as the trier of fact, is the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony. An appellate court will not reweigh the testimony or reevaluate the credibility of the witnesses, but it will review the evidence to determine whether the trial court made findings which are clearly wrong. Fu v. State, 263 Neb. 848, 643 N.W.2d 659 (2002). The issue presented here is whether the district court was clearly wrong in determining that Welton had not incurred damages as a result of defendants' fraudulent conduct. In an action for fraud, a party may recover such damages as will compensate him or her for the loss or injury actually caused by the fraud and will place the defrauded party in the same position as he or she would have been in had the fraud not occurred. Forker Solar, Inc. v. Knoblauch, 224 Neb. 143, 396 N.W.2d 273 (1986); Alliance Nat. Bank v. State Surety Co., 223 Neb. 403, 390 N.W.2d 487 (1986). Damages claimed by Welton in this action included the loss of title to his home and his equity therein. The record reflects that immediately prior to the transaction with Mid America, Welton's home had a fair market value of between $80,000 and $89,000 and that the mortgage balance was between $41,000 and $46,000. In Burling v. Allvord, 77 Neb. 861, 864, 110 N.W. 683, 684 (1906), an action for damages alleging fraudulent representations with respect to title of real property, this court held that [t]he alleged wrong was fully perpetrated when [the plaintiff buyer] parted with his money on the strength of such representations. Here, Welton lost his title and equity in April 1999 when he deeded his home to Mid America on the basis of fraudulent misrepresentations that the transaction constituted a loan. After that point, Mid America characterized the monthly payments which it received from Welton until August 2001 as rental payments. Welton's right to recover his equity lost in the April 1999 transaction is not affected by the fact that he subsequently stopped making rental payments to Mid America pursuant to the fraudulently induced transaction or by the mortgage foreclosure which occurred after Mid America had fraudulently acquired title. Likewise, Welton is entitled to recover any payments made to Mid America to the extent such payments exceed the amounts which Mid America paid to Welton's mortgage company prior to foreclosure. We conclude that the district court was clearly wrong in determining that Welton did not prove damages resulting from the fraud of defendants, and we remand the cause for determination of the specific amount of damages attributable to Welton's loss of equity and payments made to Mid America.