Another Blow for Property Owners Challenging Foreclosure

When challenging a foreclosure sale, property owners look to defects or irregularities in the foreclosure process, which is strictly regulated by California’s Civil Code, to have the sale enjoined or rescinded.  Recently, one section of the Civil Code has received a lot of attention.Civil Code Section 2932.5 requires the assignee of a mortgage to record the assignment prior to exercising a power to sell real property.  Parties have relied on this section to challenge foreclosure sales where a deed of trust is assigned, but not recorded, until after the sale.

California case law, dating back to 1908, established that the predecessor statute to section 2932.5 (section 858) applies only to mortgages, not deeds of trust (Stockwell v. Barnum).

However, federal and state courts have recently disagreed over the application of Section 2932.5 to deeds of trust.  On the federal side, e.g., Tamburri v. Suntrust Mortgage, Inc., (2011), and In re Cruz (2011), courts have applied Section 2932.5 to deeds of trust.  On the state side, the court in Calvo v. HSBC Bank USA, N.A. (2011), followed the Stockwell decision.

In support of Stockwell and Calvo, the Court of Appeal in Haynes v. EMC Mortgage Corp., (filed April 9, 2012, publication ordered April 24, 2012) found that Section 2932.5 does not apply to deeds of trust.  The Haynes court rejected Haynes’ reliance on the federal decisions finding:

We of course, are not bound by federal decisions on matters of state law…While our Supreme Court has noted in passing on issues other than the interpretation of section 2932.5, that “a deed of trust is tantamount to a mortgage with a power of sale” [citation], the court has not addressed section 2932.5 and the statute, by its plain terms, does not apply to deeds of trust.

The court also explained why section 2932.5 applies to mortgages but not deeds of trust:

Section 2932.5 requires the recorded assignment of a mortgage so that prospective purchaser knows that the mortgagee has the authority to exercise the power of sale.  This is not necessary when a deed of trust is involved, as the trustee conducts the sale and transfers title.

The Haynes decision, along with the holding in Calvo, reinforces long-standing California case law that Civil Code Section 2932.5 does not apply to deeds of trust, thus all but taking away a party’s ability to challenge a non-judicial foreclosure sale based on an unrecorded assignment.

Nicholas Kanter is a Business Litigation Attorney in our Real Estate Practice Group. Contact him via e-mail: nkanter@lewitthackman.com.

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