Professional Documents
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Biltcliffe v. CitiMortgage, Inc., 1st Cir. (2014)
Biltcliffe v. CitiMortgage, Inc., 1st Cir. (2014)
Before
Howard, Selya, and Stahl,
Circuit Judges.
and
We affirm.
Kathleen
Biltcliffe
purchased
home
in
The mortgage
provides that the lender "may accept any payment or partial payment
. . . without waiver of any rights hereunder."
The Biltcliffes defaulted on their mortgage payments in
2008. While Plaintiff avers that the couple never received written
notice of default, Defendant provided the district court with two
demand letters addressed to Plaintiff's home, one dated September
4, 2008 and the other September 24, 2008.
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that
"[f]ailure
to
cure
may
result
in
the
Biltcliffes
Home
Affordable
Modification
Program
(HAMP)2
modification offer. The HAMP offer stated explicitly that the loan
documents "will not be modified unless and until . . . the Lender
accepts this Agreement by signing and returning a copy of it to
[the borrower]."
According to
The next
Plaintiff
Fed.
R.
Civ.
P.
12(d).
The
district
court
entered
an
show good cause for a late filing and denied his motion for
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additional time.
Defendant
on
all
counts
and
denied
Plaintiff's
motion
for
jurisdictional
quandary.
Although
Plaintiff
now
this court, filed twenty days after his notice of appeal, lists
July 10, 2013 -- the date of the district court's summary judgment
decision -- as the "[d]ate of entry of judgment or order appealed
from."
A party's notice of appeal must "designate the judgment,
order,
or
3(c)(1)(B).
part
thereof
being
appealed."
Fed.
R.
App.
P.
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Puerto Rican Cars, Inc., 304 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir. 2002) (noting that
while courts are not "invariably . . . bound to read the notice of
appeal
literally,"
"rescue
missions
are
not
automatic,
and
As
Ins. Co. of P.R., 467 F.3d 38, 43 (1st Cir. 2006); see also
Mariani-Giron v. Acevedo-Ruiz, 945 F.2d 1, 3 (1st Cir. 1991) ("[A]n
appeal from the denial of a Rule 59(e) motion is not an appeal from
the underlying judgment.").
At oral argument, Plaintiff's counsel characterized his
notice of appeal designation as an "accident" caused in part by the
short amount of space provided on the form to write in the order
being appealed from.
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intended
to
appeal
both
the
summary
judgment
and
the
the
final
reconsideration
judgment
"largely
where
rehashed
the
the
appellant's
arguments
motion
it
made
for
in
Airport Aviation Servs., Inc., 716 F.3d 256, 262 (1st Cir. 2013);
see also Town of Norwood v. New England Power Co., 202 F.3d 408,
415 (1st Cir. 2000) (reviewing both reconsideration decision and
underlying dismissal where Rule 59(e) motion covered "more or less
the same points" as opposition to dismissal and district court
"tersely denied [the motion for reconsideration] relying on its
original decision") (emphasis in original).
N.A., 693 F.3d 207, 214 (1st Cir. 2012); Markel Am. Ins. Co. v.
Daz-Santiago, 674 F.3d 21, 27 (1st Cir. 2012).
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the
case.
Plaintiff's
brief
on
appeal
challenges
the
Cf.
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for
reconsideration,
our
review
is
limited
to
the
Nat'l
Metal
Finishing
Co.,
Inc.
v.
We consider each in
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Neither
CitiMortgage nor the district court asserted that the 2008 default
notices accelerated Plaintiff's debt; the 2008 demand letters
stated only that "failure to cure . . .
may
result in the
As the district
court
not
properly
Plaintiff's
debt
concluded,
until
CitiMortgage
2010,
when
its
did
attorneys
accelerate
sent
an
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of
contractual
relationship
between
the
parties
from
his
attorneys
disputing
the
authenticity
of
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granted
summary
judgment
to
Defendant.
As
described
above,
govern filing deadlines on its own docket and "will not meddle
unless
we
exists."
are
persuaded
that
some
exceptional
justification
district
affidavits,
court
the
determined
information
that
even
contained
if
it
therein
accepted
was
the
previously
available to Plaintiff and thus did not present the court with "new
evidence."
Alicea v. Machete
III.
Conclusion
While Plaintiff contends that he and his wife never received these
notices, CitiMortgage put forth evidence that they were mailed.
See 2007 Mass. Acts ch. 206, 11 (written notice of mortgagor's
default "shall be deemed to be delivered to the mortgagor . . .
when mailed to the mortgagor at the mortgagor's address").
Therefore, the district court properly granted summary judgment on
Plaintiff's breach of contract claim.
Turning to his unjust
enrichment claim, even under de novo review, CitiMortgage's
acceptance of partial monthly payments when it was owed a higher
monthly amount hardly qualifies as inequitable, and as discussed
supra, the court properly declined to reach this equitable claim
since Plaintiff's contract-based claim afforded him an adequate
remedy at under Massachusetts law.
As for the third count of
Plaintiff's complaint, he abandoned his breach of the duty of good
faith and fair dealing claim on appeal.
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