Kalvans v. Mizera CA6

Filed 6/21/16 Kalvans v. Mizera CA6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

MARY ANN KALVANS, H041055 (Monterey County Plaintiff and Appellant, Super. Ct. No. M92503)

v.

NICHOLAS MIZERA et al.

Defendants and Respondents.

In August 2015 this court upheld summary judgments in favor of several defendants in a lawsuit involving the purchase and financing of real estate by plaintiffs Mary Ann Kalvans and Craig Rambo. Appellant Kalvans filed this appeal during the pendency of her earlier appeal, after the trial court dismissed the underlying case as to the remaining defendants for failure to prosecute. This appeal encompasses that dismissal and an order imposing sanctions against plaintiffs. Appellant persists in arguing that she was the victim of mortgage fraud and wrongful foreclosure, even though her grievances are beyond the scope of this appeal. As we will explain, appellant has failed to demonstrate any trial court error as to the two orders under our review. With a minor modification to the order dismissing the remaining defendants, we will affirm.

I. BACKGROUND Plaintiffs purchased real estate in Bradley, California that was ultimately lost through foreclosure. Plaintiffs sued several parties including the seller, lenders, title companies, and a foreclosure company. Nearly all defendants moved for summary

judgment, and Kalvans appealed from several of those judgments in 2012. Kalvans failed to perfect an appeal against defendant Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, and the appeal against defendant Henrik Nielsen was dismissed as untimely. In 2015 we issued an unpublished opinion in Kalvans v. Springleaf Financial Services, Inc. (H038135, filed August 21, 2015) (Kalvans I) upholding judgments in favor of defendants American General Financial Services, Inc. (American General), Ted L. Pickett and Robbie J. Pickett, and All American Foreclosure Services. In July 2013 plaintiffs moved to set aside summary judgment in favor of defendant Nielsen based on newly-discovered evidence of fraud and illegal conduct. That motion was denied orally by the trial court after hearing, followed by a written order entered September 20, 2013. On December 3, 2013, the trial court denied plaintiffs’ motion to reconsider its September 20 ruling, and it ordered plaintiffs to pay Nielsen’s attorney’s fees ($1,250) under Code of Civil Procedure section 128.5, subdivision (a)1 as a sanction for filing a frivolous motion. On May 14, 2014, the court issued an order clarifying that it had intended to order sanctions against plaintiffs and their attorney of record, and it ordered $1,250 in sanctions jointly and severally against plaintiffs and attorney Dale I. Gustin. After issuing an order to show cause as to why the case should not be dismissed under Code of Civil Procedure section 583.310,2 in March 2014 the trial court dismissed with prejudice all defendants who had not yet been dismissed or against whom a judgment had not been perfected. In an order filed April 8, 2014, the court identified those defendants as Nicholas F. Mizera, American General Financial Services, and