Safapou v. Rushmore Loan Management, LLC

Background

Cherie Safapou brought a foreclosure action against Rushmore Loan Management LLC, her current loan servicer, and Wilmington Savings Fund Society, the loan trustee. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. Safapou did not file an opposition, so the court issued an order requiring her to explain that failure.

Safapou responded by filing a motion for voluntary dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(2). Because defendants’ summary-judgment motion was pending, Safapou needed the court’s approval to dismiss the suit.

Voluntary Dismissal

The court explained that a Rule 41(a)(2) dismissal generally should be granted unless a defendant shows plain legal prejudice. Legal prejudice means harm to a legal interest, legal claim, or legal argument. Defendants did not oppose Safapou’s dismissal motion, and the deadline for doing so had passed. The court therefore found no showing of legal prejudice and granted the request for voluntary dismissal.

The motion did not specify whether the dismissal should be with or without prejudice. In deciding that issue, the court considered defendants’ effort and expense in preparing for trial, any excessive delay or lack of diligence by Safapou, and whether Safapou sufficiently explained the need for dismissal.

Safapou explained that her attorney learned in September 2020 that William Matz, the expert Safapou intended to disclose, had died. Safapou had already paid Matz $4,500, could not afford another expert, and relied on Matz’s accounting review of records. The court found that this explained why Safapou sought dismissal but did not explain why she waited to seek dismissal. She knew of Matz’s death a month before the expert-disclosure and dispositive-motion deadlines, but did not notify defendants of her intent to dismiss until after they filed their summary-judgment motion and after the court addressed her failure to oppose it.

The court concluded that Safapou’s lack of diligence and defendants’ needless work preparing the summary-judgment motion favored dismissal with prejudice.

Disposition

Judge Jacquelyn Scott Corley granted Safapou’s motion for voluntary dismissal with prejudice. The court denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment as moot and stated that the order disposed of Docket Nos. 42 and 48.