T.D. Service Company Auctions Property for $22k instead of $220k – CA Appeals Court Quiets Title to Bidder
By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.
Thanks to Charles Cox for this one.
Excerpts
Plaintiff David Biancalana successfully bid on a piece of real property at a trustee’s sale. Defendant trustee T.D. Service Company (TD) subsequently discovered it had erroneously conveyed the delinquency amount ($21,894.17) to the auctioneer, instead of the correct opening credit bid of $219,105 submitted by the beneficiary to TD. TD informed Biancalana of the error, declined to issue a trustee’s deed on sale and returned his cashier’s check. Biancalana retendered the check to TD and demanded it issue the trustee’s deed. When it failed to do so, he sued for quiet title, specific performance, declaratory and injunctive relief.
TD’s motion for summary judgment was initially denied. After TD successfully moved for reconsideration on the grounds of “new law,” the trial court granted TD’s motion and entered judgment in its favor.
On appeal, Biancalana argues that the trial court erred in granting TD’s motion for summary judgment as there was no irregularity in the foreclosure sale process. Biancalana also argues that the trial court erred in granting TD’s motion for reconsideration as the case it determined constituted “new law”( i.e., Millennium Rock Mortgage, Inc. v. T.D. Service Co. (2009) 179 Cal.App.4th 804 (Millennium Rock)) did not represent a change in the law, but simply applied existing law to a new fact pattern.
We agree that the trial court erred in granting TD’s motion for summary judgment and shall reverse the judgment.
Download the ruling here: http://dtc-systems.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Biancalana_v_TD_Service-For_Publication.pdf