The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals recently held in Pittman v. Regions Bank that questions about the propriety of a foreclosure may be raised more than one year after the foreclosure as an affirmative defense to an ejectment action, even if that party did not challenge the original foreclosure.

In 2008, Windham and Rhonda Pittman—along with their company Land Ventures for 2, LLC—obtained a $650,000 loan from Access Mortgage Corporation to purchase several parcels of property in Daleville, Alabama, including a parcel where the Pittmans’ house was located. The Pittmans signed a loan modification agreement with Access in 2009, and the loan was transferred to Regions Bank in 2010. The Pittmans ultimately fell behind on their monthly payments and Regions eventually foreclosed on the property.

After ignoring several requests from the Pittmans asking that the properties be sold off individually rather than together, Regions sold the property to itself en masse for $367,500 in 2013. The Pittmans refused to vacate the property on which their house was located, however, and Regions filed an ejectment action in 2014. The Pittmans contested the action, contending that they had not received proper notice of their default on the loan, of Regions’ intent to accelerate the loan, or of Regions’ intent to foreclose. They also argued that Regions had improperly denied their requests to sell the property off by lot rather than en masse. The trial court granted summary judgment to Regions.

On appeal, however, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals reversed, holding that in order to prevail on its ejectment claim, Regions must show that it held proper title to the property and that the Pittmans unlawfully remained on the property. The Court held that while there was no dispute that the Pittmans remained on at least one of the properties, the Pittmans were entitled to raise the issue of improper foreclosure as an affirmative defense to Regions’ ejectment. As such, the Court disagreed with Regions’ assertion that all contentions of an improper foreclosure must be raised within one year of the foreclosure because the ejectment action required Regions to prove that it held legal title.

Further, the Court held that Regions’ refusal to sell non-contiguous parcels of property could indicate that Regions violated its duty of fairness and good faith, thereby voiding the foreclosure sale. According to the Court, the Pittmans had presented substantial evidence that they had asked Regions to sell the properties separately and that they had been prejudiced when Regions refused to do so. Specifically, the Court held that the Pittmans had presented evidence that they could have redeemed the lot containing their home without redeeming the other properties if Regions had sold the lots separately, and that the properties might have sold at a higher price if Regions had sold them separately. Therefore, the Court held that the trial court should not have granted Regions’ motion for summary judgment.

This ruling should serve as a reminder to loan servicers and investors that all foreclosures must be handled in good faith, seeking not to prejudice a homeowner any more than necessary. In Pittman, Regions’ refusal to consider selling the Pittmans’ property in individual lots may have kept the Pittmans from receiving the full value of their property, and made it more difficult for the Pittmans to redeem the property—issues that the Pittmans raised prior to foreclosure. Further, counsel for loan servicers should bear in mind that the one-year bar to challenging a foreclosure on its face does not necessarily extend to a party’s ejectment defenses. Therefore, counsel should take care not to oversell the importance of the one-year bar when evaluating a client’s claims for ejectment or a similar action.

The text of the opinion is available here.