Tidwell v. JPMC Specialty Mortgage CA1/5

Filed 9/5/14 Tidwell v. JPMC Specialty Mortgage CA1/5 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FIVE

EDWARD C. TIDWELL, Plaintiff and Appellant, A138546 v. JPMC SPECIALTY MORTGAGE LLC, (Contra Costa County Super. Ct. No. MSC11-02461) Defendant and Respondent.

Appellant Edward C. Tidwell appeals from the trial court’s order sustaining the demurrer of respondent JPMC Specialty Mortgage LLC (JPMC) without leave to amend and dismissing Tidwell’s complaint with prejudice as to JPMC. We affirm. BACKGROUND The relevant facts as alleged in the operative second amended complaint (complaint) are as follows. In 2005, Tidwell obtained a residential loan from Argent Mortgage Company, LLC (Argent), secured by a deed of trust (deed) encumbering certain real property. The trustee was identified as Town and Country Title Services, Inc. On October 16, 2006, a notice of default was recorded by Cal-Western Reconveyance Corporation (Cal-Western), stating Tidwell owed over $11,000 on the loan (notice of default). The notice of default identified Cal-Western as “either the original trustee, the duly appointed substituted trustee, or acting as agent for the trustee or beneficiary.” The notice of default directed questions about the amount due or

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arrangements for payment to stop foreclosure to WM Specialty Mortgage LLC (WM Specialty), an entity subsequently known as JPMC.1 In December 2006, two additional documents were recorded. The first, dated October 27, 2006, memorialized an assignment of the deed from Argent to WM Specialty, effective October 15, 2006 (assignment). The second, also dated October 27, substituted Cal-Western for Town and Country Title Services, Inc. as the trustee of the deed, effective October 15 (substitution). The property was eventually sold at a trustee’s sale. In 2011, Tidwell sued JPMC, as well as other defendants not at issue in this appeal, alleging multiple causes of action in connection with the loan and foreclosure process. The trial court sustained JPMC’s demurrer without leave to amend and dismissed the complaint with prejudice as to JPMC.2 DISCUSSION I. JPM Specialty Mortgage Tidwell challenges a number of the trial court’s rulings issued after JPMC’s attorneys realized they erroneously had been filing documents in the case—including the demurrer at issue here—on behalf of “JPM Specialty Mortgage, LLC,” resulting in JPMC’s default being entered in May 2012. After the entry of default, JPMC’s attorneys filed a case management statement and notice of errata explaining the error, and subsequently obtained orders setting aside the entry of default and deeming the demurrer filed by JPMC. 1 For convenience, at times in this opinion we refer to WM Specialty as JPMC. 2 We grant, as we must, Tidwell’s June 4, 2014 request for judicial notice of four published California court of appeal decisions and an unpublished federal district court decision. (Evid. Code, § 451, subd. (a); Boghos v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London (2005) 36 Cal.4th 495, 502, fn. 3.) We deny the remainder of his June 4, 2014 request and the entirety of his February 13, 2014 request for judicial notice. To the extent the documents are attached as exhibits to his complaint and incorporated therein, judicial notice is unnecessary because in our review of the demurrer ruling, we accept these exhibits as true. (Satten v. Webb (2002) 99 Cal.App.4th 365, 374–375.) The remaining documents are not relevant to this appeal.