Writ of Mandamus: The Right Procedure

submitted by Frank D’Anna

Writ of Mandate 2 Frank D’Anna

COMMENT: I don’t know if Frank got help, but however he did it, this is a fine piece of work. He obviously understands that if you want to take an appeal, you must state a reason that the trial court erred. If you want to win it, you better come up with a procedural issue that is compelling. Most appeals fail. The reason is that the Appellant wants the appellate court to say the Judge was wrong on the facts. They don’t do that except in the rarest of cases, so don’t bother.

The best appeal is to be able to say and show IN THE COURT RECORD that you didn’t get your day in court, which is to say that the trial judge refused to hear your case on the merits. Any other appeal will get “Per Curium, Affirmed” without comment.

The second best appeal is to imply that the trial judge was tone deaf and ruled based upon presumptions he wasn’t allowed to make. D’Anna’s appeal is a combination of the the two approaches. They both amount to the same thing: you were not heard on the merits and the trial judge prejudged the case based upon incorrect presumptions.

Speaking in legalese this means that the trial judge presumed that YOU had the burden of proof and allowed your opposition, over your objection, to introduce information that was not authenticated, verified or given proper foundation to be taken into evidence. In many cases there is no evidentiary hearing. Your case is a denial of the allegations of the oppositions whether they have filed (judicial states) or they haven’t filed them (Non-judicial states).

The mistake repeatedly made in the trial court is acceptance by the borrower that the borrower has some burden of proof regarding the standing of the opposing party, whether the opposing party is a real party in interest, and whether the note was properly assigned or ever made it into the “Trust.”

This is just plain wrong: There is only party actually seeking affirmative relief — the one who wants to enforce the note and foreclose on the property. The party seeking affirmative relief is the ALWAYS charged with pleading a case upon which relief could be granted and ALWAYS required to prove each and every allegation. The allegations and the proof must line up with the elements of their cause of action as stated by statute, the rules of civil procedure and previous common law decisions.

In non-judicial states these errors are magnified. Because the law is universally misapplied, a party can foreclose through power of sale even if they would have no right to foreclose judicially. That is not the law and if it was the law it would be unconstitutional.

  • The fact that the forecloser ignores the basic elements of law does not shift the burden of pleading or the burden of proof onto the borrower.
  • The fact that the borrower/debtor must bring an action seeking injunction or restraining order to stop the non-judicial sale does not change the burden of pleading or the burden of proof.
  • Once the denial or objection is registered in any fashion, the Trustee in a non-judicial state and the mortgagee in a judicial state MUST, under all conditions, plead and prove their case in a court of law.
  • Non-judicial election is simply not available.

BUT HERE’S THE RUB: IF YOU DON’T OBJECT TO WHAT THE COURT IS DOING, YOUR OPPOSITION IS GOING TO ARGUE, MANY TIMES SUCCESSFULLY THAT YOU WAIVED THAT ARGUMENT. BUT JURISDICTIONAL ISSUES CAN BE HEARD AT ANY TIME EVEN IF THEY ARE FIRST BROUGHT UP ON APPEAL.

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