Opinion ID: 4545925
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Foreclosure Complaint and Trial

Text: [¶2] On February 16, 2018, Wilmington filed a complaint for foreclosure, alleging that Berry was in default for failing to make payments since May 1, 2015, and that she owed $73,508.08.2 [¶3] On March 20, 2019, the court held a one-day bench trial on Wilmington’s complaint. At trial, Wilmington sought to admit in evidence business records purporting to show Berry’s payment history with various loan servicers, including, in relevant part, Ditech Financial (formerly Green Tree Servicing) and Fay Servicing, LLC, the current servicer of Berry’s loan. To support the admission of these records, Wilmington presented testimony from an employee who worked for these loan servicers and who was familiar with each entity’s record keeping practices. However, Berry objected to the admission of the business records because the records also contained a 2On September 21, 2005, Berry signed a promissory note in the amount of $55,700 for the purpose of purchasing a residential property in Van Buren and, to secure the note, executed and delivered a mortgage to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., as the nominee of the lender. In November 2013, Berry entered into a loan modification agreement, increasing the outstanding principal to $78,037.07. At trial, the court (Soucy, J.) admitted evidence demonstrating that Wilmington was the holder of the note and owner of the mortgage, and the parties do not dispute that evidence. 3 reference to a separate loan servicer, “Marix Servicing, LLC.” Although the records indicated that Marix may have serviced Berry’s loan in December 2016, an employee of Fay Servicing testified that he had no knowledge about Marix and did not recognize the name. The court admitted the records “de bene.” [¶4] Additionally, Wilmington attempted to prove that it had properly mailed to Berry a notice of default and right to cure. Wilmington presented testimony indicating that the notice had been mailed, and the court admitted in evidence a copy of the notice, which contained a “First-Class Mail” designation on the exhibit’s cover page and a “Transaction Report” from LenderLive, LLC, indicating that a notice was mailed in January 2017. Berry testified that she had never received the notice and that there were three other individuals who also received mail at her address. [¶5] Regarding the business records, the court sustained Berry’s objection made at trial and concluded that, although the witness was “qualified . . . to lay the foundation necessary to admit the . . . loan payment history,” the “unexplained reference” to Marix was “fatal to [Wilmington’s] attempts to lay a proper foundation for the admission of [the records].” The court found that the reference to Marix “indicate[s] a lack of trustworthiness 4 of the records offered.” Additionally, the court found that Wilmington had “failed to prove timely receipt of notice of the right to cure” and that Berry had presented a “credible reason explaining why she may not have received it.” Because it excluded the evidence of the business records and found that Wilmington did not prove that it had properly served Berry with the notice of default and right to cure, the court entered judgment in favor of Berry on May 14, 2019.