Deutsche Bank National Trust Company v. Copper Sands Homeowners Association, Inc. et al
Filing
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ORDER denying without prejudice 25 Motion to Lift Stay to the filing of a new motion after the Supreme Court rules on the Bourne Valley and Saticoy Bay petitions for certiorari review. Signed by Judge Jennifer A. Dorsey on 2/28/2017. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - JM)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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DISTRICT OF NEVADA
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Deutsche Bank National Trust Company,
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Plaintiff
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Copper Sands HOA, et al.,
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Order Denying Deutsche Bank’s
Motion to Lift Stay
v.
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2:16-cv-00763-JAD-CWH
Defendants
[ECF No. 25]
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A few months ago, I stayed this case pending the Ninth Circuit’s consideration of a
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petition for en banc review of the panel decision in Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells Fargo
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Bank, which held that Chapter 116’s nonjudicial foreclosure scheme “facially violated mortgage
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lenders’ constitutional due process rights” before it was amended in 2015.1 Although the Ninth
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Circuit denied en banc review, the Nevada Supreme Court held on January 26, 2017, in Saticoy
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Bay v. Wells Fargo that “the Due Process Clauses of the United States and Nevada Constitutions
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are not implicated in an HOA’s nonjudicial foreclosure of a superpriority lien.”2 The Nevada
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Supreme Court “acknowledge[d]” the Ninth Circuit’s Bourne Valley holding but “decline[d] to
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follow its holding.”3 The losing parties in both Bourne Valley and Saticoy Bay have indicated
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their intent to file petitions for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court.4 Because Bourne
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Valley and Saticoy Bay offer starkly conflicting views on the central question in the instant case,
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Bourne Valley Ct. Trust v. Wells Fargo Bank, 2016 WL 4254983, at *5 (9th Cir. Aug. 12,
2016).
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Saticoy Bay v. Wells Fargo, 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 5 (Jan. 26, 2017).
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Id. at 7–8, n.5.
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The Nevada Supreme Court has stayed issuance of the remittitur until June 21, 2017, to allow
time to seek certiorari. Saticoy Bay, Nev. S. Ct. Case No. 68630, Doc. 17-04543 (Feb. 8, 2017).
The United States Supreme Court has extended the deadline for the Bourne Valley cert petition to
April 3, 2017. Case No. 16A753 (Feb 24, 2017).
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the constitutionality of potentially thousands of Nevada’s non-judicial foreclosure sales may
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ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court.5
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Deutsche Bank now moves to lift the stay in this case.6 Defendants oppose the request
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and ask me to keep the stay in place until the petitions for certiorari are resolved.7 To save the
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parties from the need or inclination to invest resources briefing the effect of the Bourne Valley
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and Saticoy Bay opinions before the United States Supreme Court has ruled on the petitions for
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certiorari review in these cases, I deny the motion to lift the stay.
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Discussion
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A district court has the inherent power to stay cases to control its docket and promote the
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efficient use of judicial resources.8 When determining whether a stay is appropriate pending the
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resolution of another case—often called a “Landis stay”—the district court must weigh: (1) the
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possible damage that may result from a stay, (2) any “hardship or inequity” that a party may
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suffer if required to go forward, (3) “and the orderly course of justice measured in terms of the
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simplifying or complicating of issues, proof, and questions of law” that a stay will engender.9
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After weighing these considerations, I find that a Landis stay remains appropriate here. I address
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these considerations in reverse order.
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See S.C.R. 10(a) (suggesting that a conflict between a circuit court and “a state court of last
resort” on “an important federal question” can be a basis for granting review on a writ of
certiorari).
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ECF No. 25. I find this motion suitable for disposition without oral argument. Nev. L.R. 78-1.
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ECF Nos. 26, 27. The HOA also notes that the claims against defendant and counterdefendant
Alessi & Koenig, LLC are subject to an automatic stay due to the entity’s bankruptcy filing. ECF
No. 26. Because I am staying this case pending the resolution of the petitions for certiorari, I do
not address at this time the scope of the automatic stay.
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Landis v. North American Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254–55 (1936); Dependable Highway Exp., Inc.
v. Navigators Ins. Co., 498 F.3d 1059, 1066 (9th Cir. 2007).
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Lockyer v. Mirant Corp., 398 F.3d 1098, 1110 (9th Cir. 2005).
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A.
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A stay will promote the orderly course of justice.
At the center of this case is an HOA-foreclosure sale under NRS Chapter 116 and the
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competing arguments that the foreclosure sale either extinguished the bank’s security interest or
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had no legal effect because the statutory scheme violates due process. The United States
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Supreme Court’s consideration of petitions for certiorari in Bourne Valley and Saticoy Bay have
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the potential to be dispositive of this case or at least of discrete issues that it presents. As the
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jurisprudence in this area of unique Nevada law continues to evolve, the parties in the scores of
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foreclosure-challenge actions pending in this courthouse file new motions or move to supplement
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the ones that they already have pending, often resulting in docket-clogging entries and an
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impossible-to-follow chain of briefs in which arguments are abandoned and replaced.
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Continuing to stay this case pending the Supreme Court’s disposition of the petitions for
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certiorari in Bourne Valley and Saticoy Bay will permit the parties to evaluate—and me to
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consider—the viability of the claims under the most complete precedent. This will simplify and
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streamline the proceedings and promote the efficient use of the parties’ and the court’s resources.
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B.
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Hardship and inequity
Both parties face the prospect of hardship if I resolve the claims or issues in this case
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before the petitions for certiorari have been decided. Denying this motion to lift stay at this time
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and effectively extending this stay will prevent unnecessary briefing and the expenditures of
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time, attorney’s fees, and resources that could be wasted—or at least prematurely spent—should
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the Supreme Court take up these cases.
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C.
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Damage from a stay
The only potential damage that may result from a stay is that the parties will have to wait
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longer for resolution of this case and any motions that they have filed or intend to file in the
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future. But a delay would also result from any rebriefing or supplemental briefing that may be
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necessitated if the Supreme Court grants certiorari and resolves this circuit-state split. So it is not
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clear to me that a stay pending the Supreme Court’s disposition of the petitions for certiorari will
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ultimately lengthen the life of this case. I thus find that any possible damage that the extension
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of this stay may cause the parties is minimal.
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D.
The length of the stay is reasonable.
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Finally, I note that the stay extension in this case pending the disposition of the petitions
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for certiorari in Bourne Valley and Saticoy Bay is expected to be reasonably short. The petition
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in Bourne Valley is due April 3, 2017, and the petition in Saticoy Bay is due April 25, 2017.
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Because the length of this stay extension is directly tied to the petition proceedings in those
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cases, it is reasonably brief, and it is not indefinite.
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Conclusion
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the motion to lift stay [ECF No. 25] is DENIED
without prejudice to the filing of a new motion after the Supreme Court rules on the
Bourne Valley and Saticoy Bay petitions for certiorari review.
DATED: February 28, 2017
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_______________________________
__________ ________
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Jennifer A. Dorsey
fer A Dorsey
o
United States District Judge
d States
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Judge
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