APPELLATE COURT AFFIRMS SUMMARY JUDGMENT OF FORECLOSURE DESPITE BORROWER’S AGENCY COMPLAINTS | KEY POINTS

1. Illinois’ First District recently affirmed a summary judgment of foreclosure in favor of Wilmington Sav. Fund Soc’y, FSB, finding there to be no genuine dispute on the issue of standing and no issues with the public sale which the clerk conducted pursuant to the judgment. Wilmington Sav. Fund Soc’y, FSB as Tr. for Pretium Mortg. Acquisition Tr. v. Roney, 2023 IL App (1st) 220695-U. Roney took out a loan in 2005, defaulted in 2010, and the bank initiated foreclosure proceedings in 2010. Roney challenged standing and the propriety of the court’s order confirming the sale.

2. As to standing, Roney claimed that a discrepancy between the date in an interrogatory answer and the date in an assignment of mortgage created a genuine dispute on the issue of standing. The lower and appellate court agreed that the discrepancy was a non-issue because the document, an assignment of mortgage, as opposed to an interrogatory answer, controlled. The assignment conclusively established the bank’s ownership of the note at the inception of the case. As to the sale, Roney claimed it should not be confirmed while his complaints with the OCC and CFPB remained pending.

3. The First District disagreed with Roney explaining that once the sale took place, the court was limited in its ability to undo the sale unless there were “serious defects in the actual sale process”, which there were not. The Court also explained that both agency complaints were filed after the sale took place and after Wilmington moved to approve the sale. Therefore, the timing of the agency complaint further supported the lower court’s refusal to indefinitely delay confirmation of the sale. The First District affirmed the lower court’s summary judgment of foreclosure and order confirming the sale.

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