Seventh Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Borrower’s Post-Foreclosure Federal Claims Based On Rooker-Feldman and Res Judicata

Today’s post follows-up mine from 2/26/17: Borrower’s Claims For Violations of RESPA, TILA, FDCPA, RICO And FPRAM, Together With Claims for Various Torts, Dismissed. For an introduction to the case, Mains v. Citibank, 852 F.3d 669 (7th Cir. 2017), please click on that prior article.

The borrower appealed the District Court’s ruling to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Click here for the Court's opinion, which thoroughly sets up each of the borrower’s contentions and then knocks them out. Mains provides a road map through Indiana state and federal law under circumstances in which a borrower/mortgagor, in the aftermath of a state court foreclosure, pursues fraud-based remedies in federal court against a lender, a mortgage loan servicer and their law firms.

I’ve written about the Rooker-Feldman and res judicata doctrines many times in the past. In fact, this is the second post about a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision on the subject – click here for my first post. As to this recent opinion, here are a couple highlights:

1. Federal claims not raised in state court, or that do not expressly require review of the state court decision, may be subject to dismissal “if those claims are closely enough related to a state court judgment.” Is the federal plaintiff alleging that the state court judgment caused his injury?

2. The Seventh Circuit broadly concluded that “the foundation of the present suit is [the borrower’s] allegation that the [prior foreclosure judgment] was in error because it rested on a fraud perpetrated by the defendants…. [The borrower’s] remedies lie [solely] in the Indiana courts.” The Court reasoned that, to delve into any alleged fraud, “the only relief would be to vacate [the state court] judgment … that would amount to an exercise of de facto appellate jurisdiction, which is not permissible.”

The Court found that “in the final analysis, all of [the borrower’s] claims must be dismissed - most under Rooker-Feldman and a few for issue preclusion [res judicata].” The only thing the Court of Appeals changed was that the dismissal should be without, instead of with, prejudice. (As an aside, the borrower appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, which denied his request to hear the case – Mains v. Citibank, 138 S.Ct. 227 (2017)).

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I frequently represent creditors and lenders, as well as their mortgage loan servicers, in contested mortgage foreclosure cases. If you need assistance with a similar matter, please call me at 317-639-6151 or email me at john.waller@woodenlawyers.com. Also, don’t forget that you can follow me on Twitter @JohnDWaller or on LinkedIn, or you can subscribe to posts via RSS or email as noted on my home page.