Planet Home Lending, L.L.C. v. Keyes

Summary

The Ohio Eleventh District Court of Appeals affirmed a Lake County Court of Common Pleas judgment granting Planet Home Lending summary judgment and foreclosure against Maurice G. Keyes. The court held that the trial court provided a fair opportunity to respond to the summary-judgment motion, lacked jurisdiction to review unappealed rulings on the motion to vacate and motion to strike, and that Planet Home established standing as a person entitled to enforce the note. The court also rejected or found inadequately developed Keyes’s holder-in-due-course argument.

Holdings

1. A trial court does not violate procedural due process by granting summary judgment without an oral hearing when the governing rules provide the opposing party a fair, timely opportunity to submit written opposition and the court complies with those requirements.
2. An appellate court lacks jurisdiction to review rulings on motions addressed in a later judgment entry when the appellant neither amends the notice of appeal to include that entry nor files a separate notice of appeal from it.
3. A foreclosure plaintiff establishes standing when it demonstrates that it was a person entitled to enforce the instrument at the time it filed the complaint; a plaintiff may satisfy that requirement by showing possession of a note indorsed in blank.
4. The appellant did not establish appellate error by asserting that the foreclosure plaintiff was required to prove holder-in-due-course status under R.C. 1303.31, because that statute addresses persons entitled to enforce an instrument rather than the separate holder-in-due-course concept, and the appellant did not explain how holder-in-due-course status applied.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court violated Keyes's procedural due process rights by granting summary judgment without an oral hearing or additional opportunity to be heard.
2. Whether the appellate court had jurisdiction to review the trial court's denial of Keyes's motion to vacate and its disposition of Planet Home's motion to strike when Keyes did not appeal from the later judgment entry addressing those motions.
3. Whether Planet Home established standing to bring the foreclosure action and whether Keyes established a genuine issue of material fact concerning possession, enforcement, or assignment of the note.
4. Whether Planet Home was required to prove that it was a holder in due course under R.C. 1303.31.

Disposition

affirmed