Florida Appeals Court Revisits Earlier Ruling Dealing With Two Lenders Simultaneously Foreclosing The Same Mortgage In Separate Legal Actions

A Florida appellate court recently re-addressed a one-paragraph ruling originally issued in June that dealt with two mortgage lenders who were foreclosing on the exact same mortgage in two seperate foreclosure actions. The re-issued ruling doesn't change the ultimate result in the case, but merely adds a brief statement of the procedural history in the case that led up to the defendant/homeowner filing an appeal. The re-issued ruling also drops language that was included in the earlier ruling about the trial judge abusing his discretion in allowing one the foreclosure actions to continue, despite the existence of the second action.

An excerpt from the reissued ruling:

• The unique circumstances surrounding this case involve a rather confusing situation caused by two banks—the appellee, HSBC, and American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. ("American Home Mortgage")—because they were simultaneously attempting to foreclose the same mortgage.

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• Based on the unique circumstances set forth above, we conclude that the order under review must be reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings, with directions to allow the defendants to file an answer and affirmative defenses and to require HSBC to respond to the defendants' discovery requests. The record clearly demonstrates that the defendants' failure to file a timely answer and affirmative defenses in the action filed by HSBC was due to the confusion caused by American Home Mortgage and HSBC when they were simultaneously attempting to foreclose on the same exact mortgage in two different divisions of the circuit court.

For the re-issued ruling, see Ruscalleda v. HSBC Bank USA, Case No. 3D09-997 (Fla. 3rd DCA, September 15, 2010.).