Bank of Am., N.A. v. Smith

Citations

• 2018 Ohio 3638

Syllabus

PROCEDURE/RULES — FORECLOSURE — DEFAULT JUDGMENT – CIV.R. 55: The trial court properly denied defendants-mortgagors' motion to dismiss the complaint in an in rem foreclosure action where plaintiff mortgagee had attached to its complaint a valid copy of the assignment of the mortgage and a note that referenced the mortgage and had alleged that it was seeking only to enforce its security interest against the property it was entitled to enforce the promissory note, which contained a blank indorsement in its name and it was the assignee of the mortgage at the time of the foreclosure action. The trial court erred under Civ.R. 55 by adopting the magistrate's decision and granting a default judgment in favor of plaintiff where defendants had appeared and \otherwise defended\ against the allegations in plaintiff's complaint by filing a timely motion and an amended motion to dismiss the complaint and by removing the case to federal court the magistrate had failed to give defendants 14 days to file a responsive pleading after ruling on their motion to dismiss, in violation of Civ.R. 12(A)(2) and the magistrate had applied the Civ.R. 56 summary-judgment standard instead of the Civ.R. 55 default-judgment standard.