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Dora YEBOAH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WILMINGTON TRUST, N.A., as Successor Trustee of Lehman XS Trust Mortgage Pass Through Certificate Series, 2005 3; Nationstar Mortgage Service, LLC, Defendants-Appellees, All Persons, Known and Unknown Who Claim an Interest in the Property; Does, 1-10, Defendants.
MEMORANDUM **
Plaintiff Dorah Yeboah appeals a district court order dismissing her claims for (1) wrongful foreclosure; (2) quiet title; (3) violation of California's Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”); and (4) violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) for failure to state a claim. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm. Because the parties are familiar with the history of this case, we need not recount it here. We review a district court's order granting a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) de novo. Metzler Inv. GMBH v. Corinthian Colls., Inc., 540 F.3d 1049, 1061 (9th Cir. 2008).
The district court properly dismissed Yeboah's wrongful foreclosure claim because she failed to properly allege “an illegal, fraudulent, or willfully oppressive sale.” Lona v. Citibank, N.A., 202 Cal.App.4th 89, 134 Cal. Rptr. 3d 622, 633 (2011). Defendant Wilmington Trust, NA (“Wilmington”) had authority to foreclose on Yeboah's property under California law because it held a beneficial interest in the deed of trust, whether or not it also held an interest in the underlying promissory note. Shuster v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP, 211 Cal.App.4th 505, 149 Cal. Rptr. 3d 749, 754 (2012).
Likewise, Yeboah failed to state a claim to quiet title because she did not properly allege she was the rightful owner of the property at issue. Kelley v. Mortg. Elec. Registration Sys., Inc., 642 F. Supp. 2d 1048, 1057 (N.D. Cal. 2009). The district court also properly dismissed Yeboah's UCL claim, which was premised on Yeboah's wrongful foreclosure theory. See Krantz v. BT Visual Images, L.L.C., 89 Cal.App.4th 164, 107 Cal. Rptr. 2d 209, 219 (2001).
The district court properly dismissed Yeboah's claim for violation of the FDCPA's debt collection provisions because defendants Wilmington and Nationstar Mortgage, LLC (“Nationstar”) fall outside the FDCPA's definition of “debt collectors.” Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, ––– U.S. ––––, 139 S. Ct. 1029, 1031, 203 L.Ed.2d 390 (2019). We decline to consider Yeboah's argument, raised for the first time on appeal, that Wilmington and Nationstar violated 15 U.S.C. § 1692f(6), which regulates nonjudicial foreclosures. See El Paso v. Am. W. Airlines, Inc. (In re Am. W. Airlines, Inc.), 217 F.3d 1161, 1165 (9th Cir. 2000).
AFFIRMED.
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Docket No: No. 19-56344
Decided: April 19, 2021
Court: United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
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