Opinion ID: 2318998
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Dinnis v. J.P. Morgan Chase, N.A.

Text: On 22 September 1997, Richard S. and Concetta Dinnis (the Dinnises) received a secondary mortgage loan, secured by their residence, from BAMC. The principal of the loan was $43,000.00. The last scheduled payment would have been due on 26 September 2012. At closing, BAMC assigned the note and deed of trust to Banc One. J.P. Morgan Chase succeeded Banc One. The Dinnises paid off the loan early and, on 21 May 2008, Banc One recorded properly a certificate of satisfaction. On 9 August 2010, the Dinnises filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City a complaint against J.P. Morgan Chase and BAMC. The Dinnises did not have a copy of the note or any other documents relating to the closing on their secondary mortgage loan. Thus, before the complaint was filed, they requested a copy of the mortgage loan documents from J.P. Morgan Chase, which refused the request. The Dinnises asserted in their complaint nonetheless that J.P. Morgan Chase was liable as an assignee of BAMC, under Com. Law Art., § 3-306, for breach of contract, and violations of the SMLL and the CPA, similar to the Poleks' suit. The complaint based the breach of contract claim on an alleged breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing when J.P. Morgan Chase refused to provide copies of the requested documents from the Dinnises' closing with BAMC. The CPA claim arising from the refusal to supply copies of the 1997 closing documentation was based on an alleged pattern of deceptive conduct and concealment aimed at preventing the [Dinnises] from discovering whether possible causes of action exist that relate to their secondary mortgage loan. The SMLL action was based upon information and belief that the Dinnises had been charged excessive fees at the loan closing [8] and were not given the § 12-407.1 mandatory disclosure form. The Dinnises charged that J.P. Morgan Chase was not a holder-in-due-course on the note and therefore was liable directly and derivatively for the claims asserted against BAMC. The complaint requested treble damages for J.P. Morgan Chase's knowing violation of the SMLL based on the information contained in the HUD-1 form assumedly passed on to J.P. Morgan Chase and/or Banc One. On 10 November 2010, defendants filed a motion to dismiss. A hearing was set for 31 January 2011. For the purposes of the hearing, the Dinnises' case was consolidated with the Kinseys' case, discussed infra. Judge Cannon presided over the hearing and dismissed the cases on the same grounds as in Polek, discussed supra. At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge noted also that she was not convinced that a cause of action existed for J.P. Morgan Chase's assignee liability and failure to produce loan document claims. The Dinnises filed timely an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals, but we issued a writ of certiorari, Dinnis v. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., 420 Md. 81, 21 A.3d 1063 (2011), before the intermediate appellate court decided the appeal.