Bellino v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
Filing
107
OPINION AND ORDER re: 95 MOTION for Summary Judgment filed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. For the foregoing reasons, JPMC's motion for summary judgment on the issue of standing is DENIED. The Court respectfully directs the Clerk to terminate the motion at ECF No. 95. JPMC's substantive summary judgment motion will be addressed in due course. (Signed by Judge Nelson Stephen Roman on 9/20/2016) (mml)
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TINA BELLINO, on behalf of herself and all others
similarly situated,
Plaintiffs,
No. 14-cv-3139 (NSR)
OPINION & ORDER
-againstJPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.,
Defendant.
NELSONS. ROMAN, United States District Judge
On December I, 2015, Defendant JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. ("JPMC") filed a motion
for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (ECF No.
66.) Subsequently, the Supreme Comt issued its decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct.
1540 (2016) (hereinafter, "Spokeo"). Thereafter, the Comt permitted the parties to submit
supplemental briefing regarding the legal implications of Spokeo as concerns this action. (See
ECF No. 94.) That supplemental briefing is the subject of the instant opinion. For the following
reasons, JPMC's motion for summary judgment on the issue of standing is DENIED.
BACKGROUND 1
On March 17, 2004, the sole plaintiff named in this putative class action, Tina Bellino,
obtained a $300,000 mortgage loan from JPMC to purchase a house located at 46 Highland
Avenue in Tarrytown, New York. (Campi. Ex. I, ECF No. I.) On May 11, 2012, Bellino sold
1
The Court assumes familiarity with the factual background outlined in the Court's June 29, 2015 Opinion & Order,
which denied Defendant's motion to dismiss. (ECF No. 40.)
2
The Amended Complaint includes Justo Moronta and Julia Moronta as named plaintiffs. (ECF No. 52.) However,
Plaintiffs opposition to the substantive su1n1nary judgtnent 1notion clarifies that Justo Moronta and Julia Moronta
voluntarily have dismissed their claims. (ECF No. 73 at 3, n.2.)
the house. (Id. ¶ 12.) At some point thereafter, Bellino used the proceeds from the sale to pay
off the outstanding principal, interest, and fees due on the mortgage (the “Pay-Off Amount”).
(Id. ¶ 12.) JPMC received a check for the Pay-Off Amount on May 14, 2012 in Columbus, Ohio.
(Statement of Material Facts in Support of Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment
(“JPMC’s 56.1 Statement”), ECF No. 97, ¶ 1.) A satisfaction of mortgage was sent to the
Westchester County Clerk for recording via Federal Express on June 13, 2012. (Id. ¶ 2;
Declaration of Erika Lance, ECF No. 99, ¶ 4.) The satisfaction of mortgage was delivered to the
Westchester County Clerk by Federal Express no later than June 15, 2012. (JPMC’s 56.1
Statement ¶ 3.)
DISCUSSION
In this putative class action, Plaintiff alleges that JPMC systematically fails to timely
present mortgage satisfaction notices for recording, in violation of Section 275 of the New York
Real Property Law (“RPL § 275”) 3 and Section 1921 of the New York Real Property Actions
and Proceedings Law (“RPAPL § 1921”) 4 (collectively, “the statutes”). The statutes similarly
3
RPL § 275 provides that when:
[T]he full amount of principal and interest due on the mortgage is paid, a certificate of discharge of
mortgage shall be given to the mortgagor . . . . The person signing the certificate shall, within thirty
days thereafter, arrange to have the certificate presented for recording to the recording officer of the
county where the mortgage is recorded. Failure by a mortgagee to present a certificate of discharge
for recording shall result in the mortgagee being liable to the mortgagor in the amount of five
hundred dollars if he or she fails to present such certificate within thirty days, shall result in the
mortgagee being liable to the mortgagor in the amount of one thousand dollars if he or she fails to
present a certificate of discharge for recording within sixty days or shall result in the mortgagee
being liable to the mortgagor in the amount of one thousand five hundred dollars if he or she fails
to present a certificate of discharge for recording within ninety days.
N.Y. Real Prop. § 275.
4
RPAPL § 1921 provides that:
After payment of authorized principal, interest and any other amounts due thereunder . . . has
actually been made . . . a mortgagee . . . must execute and acknowledge . . . a satisfaction of
mortgage, and thereupon within thirty days arrange to have the satisfaction of mortgage . . .
presented for recording to the recording officer of the county where the mortgage is recorded.
Failure by a mortgagee to present a certificate of discharge for recording shall result in the mortgagee
being liable to the mortgage in the amount of five hundred dollars if he or she fails to present such
certificate within thirty days, shall result in the mortgagee being liable to the mortgagor in the
2
impose monetary penalties on mortgagees in the event they fail to timely arrange to have a
certificate of discharge of a mortgage presented to the recording officer of the county where the
mortgage is recorded. Plaintiff contends that she is entitled to statutory damages based on
JPMC’s alleged violations of the statutes. In light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo,
which addresses the “injury-in-fact” requirement of Article III standing, JPMC argues that
Plaintiff lacks standing because she does not allege she suffered any additional harm beyond
JPMC’s alleged failure to timely present the certificate of discharge—a technical violation of the
statutes.
I.
Article III Standing
“[T]he irreducible constitutional minimum of standing [in federal court] contains three
elements”: injury, traceability, and redressability. Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560
(1992). “First, the plaintiff must have suffered an ‘injury in fact’—an invasion of a legally
protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent, not
conjectural or hypothetical.” Id. (internal quotations and citations omitted). “Second, there must
be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of—the injury has to be
‘fairly . . . trace[able] to the challenged action of the defendant, and not . . . th[e] result [of] the
independent action of some third party not before the court.’” Id. at 560–61 (quoting Simon v.
Eastern Ky. Welfare Rights Org., 426 U.S. 26, 41–42, (1976)). “Third, it must be likely, as
opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision.” Lujan,
504 U.S. at 561 (internal quotation and citation omitted).
amount of one thousand dollars if he or she fails to present a certificate of discharge for recording
within sixty days or shall result in the mortgagee being liable to the mortgagor in the amount of one
thousand five hundred dollars if he or she fails to present a certificate of discharge for recording
within ninety days.
N.Y. Real Prop. Acts. § 1921.
3
As Plaintiff is the party seeking to invoke federal jurisdiction, she bears the burden of
establishing the three elements of Article III standing. Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561. Since Article III
standing is “an indispensable part of the plaintiff’s case, each element [of standing] must be
supported in the same way as any other matter on which the plaintiff bears the burden of proof,
i.e., with the manner and degree of evidence required at the successive stages of the litigation.”
Id. At the summary judgment stage—the current posture of this action—Plaintiff must
demonstrate standing through specific facts via affidavits or other evidence. Id.
In the present case, Defendant challenges Plaintiff’s ability to demonstrate the first
element of Article III standing—injury-in-fact. 5 The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Spokeo
reaffirms the requirements of the injury-in-fact showing. Accordingly, the Court first turns to a
discussion of the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo.
II.
Injury-in-Fact and Spokeo
In Spokeo, the Supreme Court analyzed whether a plaintiff had standing to sue Spokeo, a
“‘people search engine,’ which searches a wide spectrum of databases to gather and provide
personal information about individuals to a variety of users, including employers wanting to
evaluate prospective employees,” for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970 (the
“FCRA”). 136 S. Ct. at 1543. The plaintiff asserted that his Spokeo-generated profile reflected
inaccurate information, in violation of the FCRA, which provides for statutory damages in
instances where a consumer reporting agency fails to comply with the accurate reporting
requirements. Id. at 1545. While the Ninth Circuit held that the plaintiff had standing to sue for
5
Plaintiff has satisfied the traceability and redressability requirements of Article III standing. With respect to
traceability, Plaintiff was injured due to Defendant’s failure to timely file mortgage satisfaction notices. As to
redressability, it is clear that Plaintiff would be compensated for her injuries through the award of statutory damages.
4
violations of the FCRA, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded, reasoning that the Ninth
Circuit had failed to analyze completely the “injury-in-fact” standing requirement.
In its opinion, the Supreme Court addressed the “injury-in-fact” prong of Article III
standing, particularly its dual requirements of “particularization” and “concreteness.” “For an
injury to be particularized, it must affect the plaintiff in a personal and individual way.” 136 S.
Ct. at 1548 (internal citation omitted). Concreteness, meanwhile, refers to the realness of the
injury. Id. Though an injury must be real, it need not be tangible. Id. at 1549. With respect to
determining whether an intangible harm constitutes an injury-in-fact, the Court instructed that
“both history and the judgment of Congress play important roles.” Id. In particular,
[b]ecause the doctrine of standing derives from the case-or-controversy
requirement, and because that requirement in turn is grounded in historical practice,
it is instructive to consider whether an alleged intangible harm has a close
relationship to a harm that has traditionally been regarded as providing a basis for
a lawsuit in English or American courts.
Id. Additionally, “because Congress is well positioned to identify intangible harms that meet
minimum Article III requirements, its judgment is also instructive and important.” Id.
While congressional intent is instructive for standing purposes, the Supreme Court
nevertheless cautioned that “Congress’ role in identifying and elevating intangible harms does
not mean that a plaintiff automatically satisfies the injury-in-fact requirement whenever a statute
grants a person a statutory right and purports to authorize that person to sue to vindicate that
right.” Id. “Article III standing requires a concrete injury even in the context of a statutory
violation.” Id. At the same time, the Court noted that “the risk of real harm” can, in certain
instances, “satisfy the requirement of concreteness.” Id. The Supreme Court pointed to two
examples of cases where a plaintiff satisfied Article III’s standing requirements without alleging
“any additional harm beyond the one Congress has identified”: (1) Public Citizen v. Department
5
of Justice, 491 U.S. 440, 449 (1989) (“Public Citizen”), 6 and (2) Federal Election Commission v.
Akins, 524 U.S. 11, 20–25 (1998) (“Akins”). 7 Id.
With these principles in mind, the Supreme Court in Spokeo noted the tension between,
on the one hand, the idea that “Congress plainly sought to curb the dissemination of false
information by adopting procedures designed to decrease that risk,” and, on the other, the notion
that the plaintiff could not “satisfy the demands or Article III by alleging a bare procedural
violation.” Id. at 1550. The Court itself did not resolve that tension, instead remanding the case
to the Ninth Circuit to decide “whether the particular procedural violations alleged in this case
entail a degree of risk sufficient to meet the concreteness requirement.” Id.
6
In Public Citizen, the American Bar Association (“ABA”) challenged Public Citizen’s standing to bring suit for the
ABA’s alleged failure to comply with disclosure requirements under the Federal Advisory Committee Act
(“FACA”). The Supreme Court rejected the ABA’s standing challenge, holding that Public Citizen had standing to
bring suit. 491 U.S. at 449. The Court noted that Public Citizen was “attempting to compel the Justice Department
and the ABA Committee to comply with FACA’s charter and notice requirements” and “seek[ing] access to the
ABA Committee’s meetings and records in order to monitor its workings and participate more effectively in the
judicial selection process.” Id. The Court held that the ABA’s “refusal to permit [Public Citizen] to scrutinize the
ABA Committee’s activities to the extent FACA allows constitutes a sufficiently distinct injury to provide standing
to sue.” Id. Further, the Court determined that Public Citizen need not “show more than that they sought and were
denied specific agency records.” Id.
7
In Akins, a group of voters sought to challenge the Federal Election Commission’s (“FEC”) determination that the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (“AIPAC”) was not a political committee. Under the Federal Election
Campaign Act of 1971 (“FECA”), political committees are required to disclose membership, contribution, and
expenditures. The FEC argued before the Supreme Court that the voters lacked standing to challenge its
determination that AIPAC was not a political committee. The Supreme Court disagreed, noting that “[t]he ‘injury in
fact’ that respondents have suffered consists of their inability to obtain information—lists of AIPAC donors (who
are, according to AIPAC, its members), and campaign-related contributions and expenditures—that, on respondents’
view of the law, the statute requires that AIPAC make public.” 524 U.S. at 21. The Court further noted that the
information sought by the group of voters “would help them (and others to whom they would communicate it) to
evaluate candidates for public office, especially candidates who received assistance from AIPAC, and to evaluate
the role that AIPAC's financial assistance might play in a specific election.” Id. Consequently, the injury alleged
was sufficiently “concrete and particular” to satisfy Article III standing. Id.
6
III.
Post-Spokeo Cases Addressing
Standing in the RPL § 275 and RPAPL § 1921 Context
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo, several courts in this Circuit have
addressed the exact issue presently before the Court—whether a plaintiff has standing to sue on
alleged violations of RPL § 275 and RPAPL § 1921.
A. Jaffe and Whittenburg
In Jaffe v. Bank of America, N.A., No. 13-cv-4866 (VB), 2016 WL 3944753 (S.D.N.Y.
July 15, 2016) and Whittenburg v. Bank of America, N.A., No. 14-cv-947 (VB), 2016 WL
3944753 (S.D.N.Y. July 15, 2016), Judge Briccetti addressed the issue of whether plaintiffs in
two putative class actions had standing to sue Bank of America for alleged violations of the
statutes due to its repeated failure to timely file mortgage satisfaction notices. Prior to Spokeo,
Judge Briccetti had ruled that the plaintiffs had Article III standing and had approved
preliminarily a class-action settlement of both actions. 2016 WL 3944753, at *1. Based upon
the Court’s “ongoing obligation to scrutinize its own subject matter jurisdiction,” Judge Briccetti
revisited the standing issue in light of Spokeo. Id.
Judge Briccetti determined that the plaintiffs had met “the concreteness requirement [of
standing] . . . because RPL § 275 and RPAPL § 1921 create a procedural right, namely, the right
to a timely filed mortgage satisfaction notice, the violation of which is a concrete injury.” Id. at
*3. In coming to this conclusion, the court first noted that it is an “open question in the Second
Circuit whether a state statute can define a concrete injury for the purposes of Article III
standing.” Id. (emphasis in original). The court relied upon the reasoning of both the Seventh
and Ninth Circuits in concluding that a “state statute, like a federal statute, may create a legal
right, the invasion of which may constitute a concrete injury for Article III purposes.” Id. at *4.
7
From there, Judge Briccetti noted that the plaintiffs alleged that the “when [the] defendant
violated [the] plaintiffs’ statutory right to a timely filed mortgage satisfaction notice, it created a
‘real risk of harm’ by clouding the titles to their respective properties.’” Id. (citing Spokeo, 136
S. Ct. at 1549). Furthermore,
The State Legislature has provided a private right of action and a heuristic for
quantifying damages, possibly in recognition of both the concreteness of this harm
and the difficulty in otherwise measuring damages. The types of harm the statutes
protect against are real. Because to the public, these mortgages appeared not to
have been satisfied, plaintiffs could have realized that harm if they had, for
example, tried to sell or encumber the subject property, or tried to finance another
property and been subjected to a credit check. Through no fault of their own,
plaintiffs would have faced unnecessary obstacles to their goals. Whether such
harm actually was realized is of no moment, because a plaintiff ‘need not allege
any additional harm’ beyond the violation of the statutory right.
Id. (quoting Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1549). Comparing the injury caused by delayed filing of mortgage
satisfaction notices to the “intangible, concrete injuries” highlighted by the Supreme Court in Spokeo,
Judge Briccetti concluded that “‘[t]imely, clear title’ is a right just as recognizable as one’s good name.”
Id. Accordingly, Judge Briccetti held that the plaintiffs had satisfied the injury-in-fact requirement for
standing.
B. Villanueva and Bowman
Following Judge Briccetti’s opinion in Jaffe, Magistrate Judge Smith addressed a similar
issue in Villanueva v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., No. 13-cv-5429 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 5, 2016) (ECF
No. 101) and Bowman v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., et al., No. 14-cv-648 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 5, 2016)
(ECF No. 111.). In light of Spokeo’s teaching that the legislature’s judgment is instructive in
examining whether a particular intangible harm constitutes an injury-in-fact, Judge Smith
examined the legislature history of the statutes. (No. 13-cv-5429, ECF No. 101 at 5-7.) Judge
Smith concluded that
the New York State Legislature sought to provide a statutory remedy for the harm
associated with mortgagors paying fees to mortgagees upon satisfaction of their
8
mortgages for the purpose of having a certificate of discharge recorded with the
county clerk, but then subsequently finding out that the mortgagee failed to do so
in a timely fashion, causing the mortgagor to pay a second fee in order to ensure
that this is, in fact, done.
(Id. at 7.)
Turning to the facts of Villanueva and Bowman, Judge Smith noted that the plaintiffs
“allege nothing more than bare procedural violations of RPAPL § 1921(1) and RPL § 275(1),
rather than alleging that they have suffered the concrete harm that these statutory provisions are
intended to address.” (Id.) (emphasis added). While Judge Smith acknowledged Judge
Briccetti’s decision in Jaffe, Judge Smith ultimately determined that the plaintiffs in Villanueva
and Bowman had failed to allege the “real risk of harm” identified by Judge Briccetti—in
particular, that “there was a cloud on the titles to their respective properties as a result of [the]
Defendants’ failure to timely file their mortgage satisfaction notices which interfered with their
ability to sell or encumber their properties or to finance another property.” (Id. at 9.)
Accordingly, Judge Smith concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to plead a sufficiently concrete
and particular injury to substantiate Article III standing. (Id. at 8.) Rather than dismiss the
action, however, Judge Smith allowed the plaintiffs “an opportunity to replead their claims to
satisfy the injury-in-fact requirement as set forth in Spokeo.” (Id. at 10.)
C. Zink
The Court also notes the opinion of Magistrate Judge Jeremiah McCarthy of the Western
District of New York in Zink v. First Niagara Bank, N.A., No. 13-cv-01076 (RJA) (JJM), 2016
WL 787963 (W.D.N.Y. Mar. 1, 2016). There, Judge McCarthy imposed a limited stay pending
the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo in a case involving alleged violations of
the statutes. Judge McCarthy noted that “[w]hile ‘statutes can create legal rights, the violation of
which constitutes sufficient injury to confer standing to sue, [t]his does not mean that violating a
9
statue results per se in an injury-in-fact . . . .[I]n order to establish standing, a statutory violation
must constitute a palpable deprivation.’” Zink, 2016 WL 787963, at *3 (quoting Boelter v.
Hearst Communications, Inc., 2016 WL 361554, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 28, 2016) (emphasis in
original)). Because the plaintiff sought merely a statutory penalty, and because at the time the
action was commenced the satisfaction of mortgage had been filed and the plaintiff did not plead
that the belated filing injured him, the court “question[ed] whether the belated filing of [the]
plaintiff’s satisfaction of mortgage amounts to a ‘palpable deprivation’ sufficient for Article III
standing.” Zink, 2016 WL 787963, at *3.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo, Judge McCarthy returned to the issue
of standing. Zink, 1:13-cv-01076 (RJA) (JJM) (W.D.N.Y. July 1, 2016) (ECF No. 119 at 6.)
Judge McCarthy noted that “[w]hile the Court in Spokeo did not definitively decide which types
of statutory violations suffice to create Article III standing,[] some portions of the opinion could
lead to the conclusion that standing does not exist in this case.” (Id. at 7.) At the same time,
Judge McCarthy highlighted the following language from Spokeo: “‘. . . the violation of a
procedural right granted by statute can be sufficient in some circumstances to constitute injury in
fact. In other words, a plaintiff in such a case need not allege any additional harm beyond the
one Congress has identified.’” (Id.) (quoting Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1549). To resolve the
“confusion” of the standing issue, Judge McCarthy looked to Justice Thomas’s concurring
opinion in Spokeo, which “focus[es] on the nature of the right being asserted.” (See 1:13-cv01076 (RJA) (JJM), ECF No. 119 at 8.)
In his concurrence, Justice Thomas writes:
Common-law courts imposed different limitations on a plaintiff’s right to bring suit
depending on the type of right the plaintiff sought to vindicate. Historically,
common-law courts possessed broad power to adjudicate suits involving the alleged
violation of private rights, even when plaintiffs alleged only the violation of those
10
rights and nothing more. Private rights are rights belonging to individuals,
considered as individuals . . . . In a suit for the violation of a private right, courts
historically presumed that the plaintiff suffered a de facto injury merely from
having his personal, legal rights invaded . . . . Common-law courts, however, have
required a further showing of injury for violations of public rights—rights that
involve duties owed to the whole community, considered as a community, in its
social aggregate capacity . . . . These differences between legal claims brought by
private plaintiffs for the violation of public and private rights underlie modern
standing doctrine and explain the Court’s description of the injury-in-fact
requirement.
136 S. Ct. at 1551–52. In light of this distinction, as well as the Supreme Court’s determination
in Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman, 455 U.S. 363, 373-74 (1982) that “testers” of violations of
the Fair Housing Act of 1968 suffered an injury sufficient to confer standing, Judge McCarthy
concluded that the plaintiff’s injury was “no more ephemeral than that of the testers in Havens.”
(See 1:13-cv-01076 (RJA) (JJM), ECF No. 119 at 9.) Therefore, Judge McCarthy concluded that
“under the present state of the law the scales tip slightly (but only slightly) in favor of finding
that [the] plaintiff has Article III standing to pursue claims on behalf of himself and the class.”
(Id. at 11.) 8
IV.
Bellino’s Claim
Having examined the state of the law in this Circuit regarding standing to sue on alleged
violations of RPL § 275 and RPAPL § 1921, the Court now turns to its analysis of the present
action.
As a threshold matter, this Court agrees with Judge Briccetti that “a state statute, like a
federal statute, may create a legal right, the invasion of which may constitute a concrete injury
for Article III purposes.” Jaffe, 2016 WL 3944753, at *4. As noted by Judge Briccetti, though
the Second Circuit has yet to address the issue, other circuits have determined that state statutes
8
While the Jaffe and Whittenburg; Villanueva and Bowman; and Zink opinions are not binding on this Court, they
are nevertheless instructive in analyzing whether Plaintiff has standing to sue in the present action.
11
may define an injury for Article III standing purposes. Id. at *3 (citing FMC Corp. v. Boesky,
852 F.2d 981, 993 (7th Cir. 1988); Cantrell v. City of Long Beach, 241 F.3d 674, 684 (9th Cir.
2001); Utah ex rel. Div. of Forestry, Fire & State Lands v. United States, 528 F.3d 712 (10th Cir.
2008)). This Court finds the reasoning of those other circuits persuasive.
The Court is satisfied that Plaintiff has established the particularization prong of the
injury-in-fact requirement. It is undisputed that Plaintiff transmitted a check to Defendant for the
Payoff Amount and satisfied her mortgage. Accordingly, Plaintiff’s suit implicates her personal
interests and her statutory rights under RPL § 275 and RPAPL § 1921.
The more difficult issue for the Court is whether Plaintiff sustained a concrete injury
sufficient to confer Article III standing. In Spokeo, the Supreme Court noted that the
concreteness requirement does not mean that a plaintiff need allege a “tangible” injury. 136 S.
Ct. at 1349. Instead, the Supreme Court “confirmed . . . that intangible injuries can nevertheless
be concrete.” Id. Further, “both history and the judgment of Congress play important roles” in
deciphering whether an intangible injury is concrete. Id. Accordingly, the Court finds it
instructive to look to both history and the judgment of the New York State legislature to
determine whether alleged violations of the statutes constitute concrete injuries.
First, the “alleged intangible harm”—a cloud on title—“has a close relationship to a harm
that has traditionally been regarded as providing a basis for a lawsuit in English or American
courts.” Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1549. Actions to quiet title have a longstanding history in New
York. See, e.g., Greenberg v. Schwartz, 73 N.Y.S.2d 458, 459 (Sup. Ct. 1947), aff’d, 273 A.D.
814, 76 N.Y.S.2d 95 (2d Dep’t 1948) (“This is an action to remove that mortgage as a cloud
upon plaintiff’s title . . . . [T]his form of action to erase it from the record is an ancient and
proper remedy.”).
12
Second, the New York State legislature clearly intended to provide a remedy to a
homeowners whose satisfaction of mortgage is not timely filed. New York State Senator John
A. DeFrancisco, a sponsor of the statutes, stated the following in a letter to the Counsel to the
New York State Governor:
The measure is a response to the serious issues that can arise when a certificate of
discharge is not filed for a mortgage that has been paid off. A fee for this document
to be presented to the county clerk is paid at the time of a property’s sale, indicating
that the property’s title is clear of this lien. When a lending institution fails to carry
through on making the filing, it can often fall upon a current seller to again pay for
the service to ensure that their present transaction can go forward.
Banks and other lenders have their mortgages recorded with the county clerk to
ensure that others are aware of their interest in a property. It is just as important
that the document giving notice of the satisfaction of that interest is properly
recorded. The legislation provides a remedy to ensure this takes place.
(Declaration of Todd S. Garber, ECF No. 103, Ex. 1.). See also New York Sponsors
Memorandum, 2005 S.B. S48B.
The Court rejects the notion that the purpose of the statutes is merely to compensate the
homeowner for duplicative payments to file a satisfaction of mortgage (i.e., mortgagor pays fee
to mortgagee who fails to file certificate and mortgagor forced to pay fee again to file himself).
As Judge Cathy Seibel noted in an oral decision on July 31, 2014 in the Villanueva and Bowan
cases (prior to their transfer to Magistrate Judge Smith for approval of the proposed settlement),
[t]he statute has [] escalating penalties the longer the mortgagee fails in its duty,
which was clearly intended to incentivize mortgagees to comply, and to do so
sooner rather than later. And the amount of the penalties are higher than and bear
no relation to the amount of the filing fees, again showing that the Legislature had
purposes other than simply reimbursing a mortgagee who had to pay twice. The
statute easily could have called simply for such reimbursement if that’s what the
Legislature wanted.
(Declaration of Todd S. Garber, ECF No.103, Ex. 2 at 9:10–18.) Plainly, then, the New York
State legislature intended to address the clear title issues that arise from a mortgagee failing to
13
timely file a mortgage satisfaction by implementing monetary penalties to be awarded to a
mortgagor whose satisfaction is belatedly filed. The escalating penalties delineated in the
statutes are intended to penalize mortgagees that do not timely file certificates of satisfaction, in
recognition of the interest mortgagors have in a public record cleared of encumbering mortgages
bearing their names. Ultimately, both history and the judgment of the New York State
legislature indicate an intent to elevate the harm associated with a mortgagee’s delayed filing of
a satisfaction of mortgage to a concrete injury.
The Court is mindful, however, of the Supreme Court’s warning that “Congress’ role in
identifying and elevating intangible harms does not mean that a plaintiff automatically satisfies
the injury-in-fact requirement whenever a statute grants a person a statutory right and purports to
authorize that person to sue to vindicate that right.” 136 S. Ct. at 1549. In an instance where a
plaintiff merely alleges “a bare procedural violation, divorced from any concrete harm,” that
plaintiff would lack Article III standing. Id. The Supreme Court’s concern with bare procedural
violations in Spokeo appears tied to the particular statute at issue in that case. As the Supreme
Court noted, an entity can violate the FCRA in a multitude of ways. However, not every
violation implicates a concrete harm. For instance, the Supreme Court noted that it would be
“difficult to image how the dissemination of an incorrect zip code, without more, could work any
concrete harm.” 136 S. Ct. at 1550. While Spokeo may technically violate the FCRA by
publishing an incorrect zip code, the Supreme Court appeared to reject that violation, standing
alone, as a basis for Article III standing. The statutes at issue in this case are of a different nature
than the FCRA. Here, there is a single means of violating the statutes—belatedly filing the
certificates. Consequently, there is no basis for differentiating between bare procedural
violations of the statutes and violations resulting in concrete harms.
14
The Court finds the reasoning of the Eleventh Circuit in Mahala A. Church v. Accretive
Health, Inc. particularly persuasive. No. 15-15708, 2016 WL 3611543 (11th Cir. July 6, 2016).
As the court in Accretive Health noted, “[a]n injury-in-fact, as required by Article III, ‘may exist
solely by virtue of statutes creating legal rights, the invasion of which creates standing . . . .’”
2016 WL 3611543, at *3 (quoting Havens, 455 U.S. at 373). See also Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S.
490, 500 (1975) (“Essentially, the standing question in such cases is whether the constitutional or
statutory provision on which the claim rests properly can be understood as granting persons in
the plaintiff’s position a right to judicial relief.”); Donoghue v. Bulldog Investors Gen. P’ship,
696 F.3d 170, 175 (2d Cir. 2012) (“[I]t has long been recognized that a legally protected interest
may exist solely by virtue of statutes creating legal rights, the invasion of which creates standing,
even though no injury would exist without the statute.”) (internal quotations and citations
omitted)). In Accretive Health, the Eleventh Circuit held that the plaintiff had Article III
standing to pursue a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) where the
plaintiff alleged that the defendant sent the plaintiff a letter that did not contain the requisite
FDCPA disclosures:
The FDCPA creates a private right of action, which [the plaintiff] seeks to enforce.
The Act requires that debt collectors include certain disclosures in an initial
communication with a debtor, or within five days of such communication. See 15
U.S.C. § 1692e(11); 1692g(a)(1)–(5).[] The FDCPA authorizes an aggrieved
debtor to file suit for a debt collector’s failure to comply with the Act. See 15
U.S.C. § 1692k(a) (“[A]ny debt collector who fails to comply with any provision
of this subchapter with respect to any person is liable to such person ....”) Thus,
through the FDCPA, Congress has created a new right—the right to receive the
required disclosures in communications governed by the FDCPA—and a new
injury—not receiving such disclosures.
It is undisputed that the letter [the defendant] sent to [the plaintiff] did not contain
all of the FDCPA’s required disclosures. [The plaintiff] has alleged that the
FDCPA governs the letter at issue, and thus, alleges she had a right to receive the
FDCPA-required disclosures. Thus, Church has sufficiently alleged that she has
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sustained a concrete-i. e., "real"-injury because she did not receive the allegedly
required disclosures.
2016 WL 3611543, at *3. In the present case, it is clear that the statutes require a mortgagee to
file a satisfaction of mortgage within 30 days of the date on which the full amount of the
principal and interest on the mortgage is paid. Further, the statutes authorize a mortgagor to file
suit for a mmtgagee's failure to comply with the statutes. Consequently, the New York State
legislature has created a new right-the right to have a certificate of satisfaction filed within 30
days of paying off a mortgage-and a new injury-not having that certificate timely filed. It is
undisputed that Defendant did not file a certificate of satisfaction of mortgage for Plaintiffs
mortgage within 30 days of receipt of the full amount of principal and interest on Plaintiffs
mortgage. That Defendant ultimately filed the certificate after the 30-day deadline and while
Plaintiff may not have sustained additional, economic injuries is of no moment. The Supreme
Court was clear in Spokeo that a concrete harm need not be tangible. The statutes create a
substantive right for Plaintiff to have the satisfaction of mortgage timely filed, and Defendant
violated that right. Nothing more is required, here, to demonstrate an injury-in-fact.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, JPMC's motion for summary judgment on the issue of
standing is DENIED. The Court respectfully directs the Clerk to terminate the motion at ECF
No. 95. JPMC's substantive summary judgment motion will be addressed in due course.
Dated:
September·2-0, 2016
White Plains, New York
SO ORDERED:
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