Court Opinion

ID: 9630439
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:11:03.957917+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:38.454077
License: Public Domain

GARY W. LYNCH, Special Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
Section 443.060.11 requires that a mortgagee receiving full satisfaction of a security instrument “shall, at the request and cost of the person making the same, deliver to such person a sufficient deed of release of the security instrument!!]” (Emphasis added). This statute does not place any requirements upon the mortgagor regarding the nature or manner of making the request. An oral or written request made by the mortgagor, or someone acting on behalf of the mortgagor, triggers the legal obligation of the mortgagee to deliver a deed of release. Likewise, this statute places no time limit upon the mortgagee within which to deliver the deed of release, and no penalty is imposed should the mortgagee fail to deliver the deed of release as requested.
The right of the mortgagor, upon request, to be delivered a deed of release as mandated by section 443.060.1, is exercised and satisfied thousands of times each day in the usual and ordinary course of closing real estate transactions. Mortgagors personally, as well as in reliance upon their attorney, title company, escrow agent or new mortgagee advancing funds from new financing, formally and informally, make the request for delivery of a deed of release from a satisfied mortgagee. Typically, satisfied mortgagees routinely and promptly comply with such requests and the requirement of section 443.060.1 by executing a deed of release and forwarding the deed of release to the appropriate land *671recordation office. Upon recordation, the deed of release is routinely sent to the mortgagor. Without this type of typical and routine processing, real estate commerce would grind to a virtual halt. Unfortunately, not every real estate transaction concludes in this typical, ordinary and routine manner.
Section 443.130, as the “enforcement mechanism for section 443.060.1,” was enacted to address the atypical real estate transaction in which, for one reason or another, a deed of release is not, or is not anticipated to be, promptly forthcoming from a satisfied mortgagee. Garr v. Countywide Home Loans, Inc., 137 S.W.3d 457, 460 (Mo. banc 2004). This statute expands the mortgagor’s right to receive a deed of release from the satisfied mortgagee as mandated by section 443.060.1, by placing a time limit of “within fifteen business days after request ” within which the mortgagee must deliver the deed of release or pay a penalty to the mortgagor. Section 443.130.1 (emphasis added). If a mortgagor must take affirmative action, by making a request, to invoke the singular right to receive a deed of release as mandated by section 443.060.1, how then does a mortgagor assert the expanded right under section 443.130.1 to receive a deed of release within fifteen business days after making the request and, in default thereof, be qualified to payment of a penalty from the mortgagee?
Subsection 2 of section 443.130 places four requirements upon the mortgagor to “qualify under this section.” First, the mortgagor must make a request for delivery of the deed of release. This requirement is identical to the request required to trigger the provisions of section 443.060.1. Without such a request, neither section 443.060.1 nor section 443.130 is operative. Second, the mortgagor “shall provide the request in the form of a demand letter to the mortgagee.” Section 443.130.2 (emphasis added). Third, the demand letter must be provided to the mortgagee by certified mail, return receipt requested. Id. Fourth, the letter shall include evidence that the debt was satisfied and that the recording expense of the deed of release had been advanced. Id. The failure of the majority opinion to address the second requirement — that the request be provided in the form of a demand letter— gives rise to this dissent.
First National argues that “the Glass letter is insufficient to invoke the penalty in section 443.130,” in that it “does not reference section 443.130 and does not request a deed of release within 15 business days.” An analysis of the wording used in this statute demonstrates that this is a meritorious argument.
The majority opinion’s labeling of the letter mailed by the Glasses to First National as a “demand letter” assumes, without any discussion or analysis, a determination that it meets the requirements of a demand letter under section 443.130.2. This assumption and determination essentially strike the word “demand” from the statute and gloss over the holding of this Court in Garr; that “any demand letter purporting to invoke section 443.130 should closely track the language of the statute to place the mortgagee on notice that the statutory demand is being made.” Garr, 137 S.W.3d at 460 (emphasis added).
What is a demand letter which allows a mortgagor “to qualify under this section” as required by section 443.130.2? The common and ordinary dictionary meaning of “demand” is “to lay formal legal claim to.” The Random House WebsteR’s UnaBRIDGED DICTIONARY 2nd Ed. (2001). This definition is consistent with the legal definition of a “demand letter,” which is: “A letter by which one party explains its legal position in a dispute and requests that the *672recipient take some action, or else risk being sued.” Black’s Law Dictionary 8th Ed. (2004). If the majority contends that a letter is a demand letter simply because it is labeled “demand letter,” such a contention would elevate form over substance. The substance of the letter must be analyzed to determine what action, if anything, the claimant is demanding or laying “formal legal claim to.”
The only claims or requests for action made by the Glasses in their letter to First National are: “Please consider this our demand letter and written request for a deed of release!,]” and “I trust that this letter and the accompanying check will enable you to deliver the requested deed of release promptly.” (Emphasis added). Such a claim or request for action by the mortgagor is required to invoke the mortgagor’s right to receive a deed of release under section 443.060 and under section 443.130. How is the mortgagee to differentiate whether the mortgagor’s requested action is demanded under the former or the latter statute? The answer is in whether the mortgagor’s letter demands, lays formal legal claim to, or requests some other action be taken by the mortgagee^ — -an action which is not required by the former but is required by the latter.
Section 443.130.1 gives the mortgagor the additional right to have the deed of release delivered within fifteen business days after the request or receive a penalty payment from the mortgagee. Therefore, under this statute, the additional action the mortgagor must lay “formal legal claim to” or demand by letter to the mortgagee, is the delivery of a deed of release within the specified time period or receive the payment of a penalty. Any letter that does not demand, “lay formal legal claim to” or request the action of delivering the deed of release within such time period, payment of a penalty, or otherwise place the mortgagee on notice that the mortgagor is laying claim to such additional right as given by section 443.130.1, cannot be a demand letter as required by section 443.130.2.2 Without the required demand letter, the mortgagor is not qualified to claim the penalty provided in the statute. Section 443.130.2.
The legislature clearly intended to give meaning to the word “demand” in the first sentence of section 443.130.2, because the following sentence begins: “The letter shall include.... ” (Emphasis added). The included items — evidence that the debt was satisfied and that expenses had been advanced — are required to be included in the “letter” and are not referenced in relationship to the “demand” aspect of the letter. The requirement for their inclusion in the “letter” does not satisfy or address the “demand” component of the “letter” as required in the first sentence. Therefore, closely tracking the language of the statute of this inclusion requirement as set forth in the second sentence of section 443.130.2 in no way supports a “demand,” as speci*673fied and required in the first sentence as it relates to the additional right conferred upon the mortgagor in section 443.130.1.
The legislature’s inclusion of the word “demand” following the word “request” and before the word “letter” in section 443.130.2 indicates that something more than simply putting the request in writing or labeling the request as a “demand” is required to qualify for imposition of the statutory penalty. Otherwise, why mention and require the request in the first instance? If the intended requirement was to “demand” delivery of a deed of release by letter, the legislature would have so provided and would not have required a “request” and a “demand” by letter. This Court is required to construe this penal statute strictly. Garr, 137 S.W.3d at 460. This Court also must attribute meaning to every word in the statute. Be-Mac Transport Co. v. State Tax Com., 725 S.W.2d 599, 600 (Mo.1987). These two rules of statutory construction become particularly critical when two statutes — one without a penalty (section 443.060) and the other penal (section 443.130) — mandate identical actions, ie., delivery of a deed of release upon request. The additional requirement is the “demand” that the mortgagee deliver a deed of release within the required time period or, in default of such delivery, pay a penalty as provided in the statute. Without attributing this meaning to the word “demand,” the legislature would have simply omitted the word from the statute. Regrettably, the majority opinion takes this action for the legislature.
Because the Glasses’ letter to First National fails to demand compliance within the time period or pay a penalty as provided in section 443.130.1, or in any other way indicates that they are demanding compliance with this additional right granted them by this statute, it is not a demand letter as required by section 443.130.2. “While no particular language is specifically required to be included in the letter, the letter must somehow put the lender on notice that a demand is made under section 443.130.” Brown v. First Horizon Home Loan Corp., 150 S.W.3d 287, 288 (Mo. banc 2004). Failure to comply with the demand letter requirement of section 443.130.2 disqualifies the Glasses from entitlement to collect any penalty under this statute from First National.
I would reverse the grant of summary judgment in favor of the Glasses.

. All statutory references are to RSMo 2000 unless otherwise noted.

. The majority opinion asserts that “Section 443.130 was intentionally directed at financial institutions that fail to provide timely deeds of release!.]” However, it is equally applicable to a mother and father that cash in their life savings to finance a home purchase for their daughter and son-in-law who then, following the daughter's divorce and a refinance, find themselves holding a letter from their ex-son-in-law that, as the majority characterizes the Glasses' letter, "identifies itself as being a demand letter and requests a deed of release.” Would they be placed on notice that the “demand” by the ex-son-in-law includes the delivery of the requested deed of release within fifteen days or they would owe him a ten percent penalty pursuant to Section 443.130? If such a letter would not place mom and pop on notice, then, likewise, it cannot be held to place a financial institution or a "sophisticated business entity” on notice. Section 443.130 makes no distinction in the level of business expertise to be attributed to any particular mortgagee.