A damages claim against your lender can survive after a foreclosure eviction ends, but you still have to prove it with evidence. In this case the Appeals Court affirmed summary judgment for the lender on a former owner’s good faith, consumer protection and wrongful foreclosure claims, because he offered no evidence to back them up. This is an unpublished Appeals Court decision under Rule 23.0, which courts may cite as persuasive but not as binding precedent.
What happened
The homeowner took out a mortgage loan in 2006. The bank later held both the note and the mortgage, and in 2010 the parties signed a loan modification. The homeowner stopped paying in 2013. Between 2016 and 2019 he sent in requests for mortgage help; the bank treated them as incomplete and offered options he did not answer. After a bankruptcy stay was lifted, the bank foreclosed in 2019 and brought an eviction case in the Housing Court. While that case was pending, the bank sold the home to a buyer, the homeowner moved out, and the bank dropped its claim for possession.
The homeowner had filed counterclaims for money damages. An earlier Appeals Court panel held that those damages claims were not moot just because possession was no longer at issue. Back in the Housing Court, the homeowner filed an amended complaint for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, violation of G.L. c. 93A, § 9, and wrongful foreclosure. The judge granted summary judgment to the bank.
What the court decided
The Appeals Court affirmed in Okanlawon v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., No. 25-P-77 (Mass. App. Ct. December 17, 2025) (Rule 23.0 decision).
Good faith and fair dealing. A lender must act in good faith when it performs under the mortgage and when it forecloses. But that duty does not reach loan modification processing before foreclosure when the loan documents do not provide for modifications. Santos v. U.S. Bank Nat’l Ass’n, 89 Mass. App. Ct. 687 (2016). The judge found the mortgage had no provision creating a modification duty, and found no evidence the bank acted in bad faith on the homeowner’s many applications from 2010 to 2019.
Chapter 93A. The consumer protection law lets a person injured by an unfair or deceptive act sue for damages, including by counterclaim in the Housing Court. G.L. c. 93A, § 9. But the homeowner did not dispute that no modification application was pending when the bank foreclosed, or that the bank had reviewed and promptly answered at least seven applications over nine years. He pointed to no evidence that the sale to a third party was unfair or deceptive.
Wrongful foreclosure. The homeowner argued that the bank did not prove it held the note and the chain of mortgage assignments. The bank offered the foreclosure deed and affidavit of sale, and the judge found the sale strictly complied with the power of sale and G.L. c. 244, §§ 11-15. That made a prima facie case and shifted the burden to the homeowner to show a real factual dispute. Federal Nat’l Mtge. Ass’n v. Hendricks, 463 Mass. 635 (2012). Allegations in a complaint, general denials and statements by counsel at a hearing are not enough. See Madsen v. Erwin, 395 Mass. 715 (1985). Because the homeowner offered no competent evidence in response, summary judgment was proper. The court did not decide whether a wrongful foreclosure claim can go forward at all once the home has been sold to a good faith buyer and the former owner has moved out.
Discovery. The court found no abuse of discretion in denying more discovery. The homeowner asked for it shortly before the summary judgment deadline and did not explain what it would have shown.
What this means for you
This is a loss for the former owner. Keeping your damages claims alive after you leave is only the first step. To get to trial, you need evidence, not just questions.
If you say the lender did not hold the note, or that the assignments were broken, you need documents, an affidavit or testimony that contradicts the lender’s paperwork. If you say the lender mishandled your modification requests, you need to show what the loan documents required and how the lender fell short. A good faith claim about modifications is hard to win when the mortgage itself says nothing about modifications.
What to do now
- Keep copies of every modification application, every letter from the lender, and proof of when you sent each one.
- Read your mortgage and note, and any modification agreement, to see what the lender actually promised.
- If you are facing an eviction after foreclosure, raise your damages claims as counterclaims in the Housing Court case.
- Plan discovery early. Ask for the note, the assignments and the servicing records well before any summary judgment deadline.
- When the lender moves for summary judgment, answer with an affidavit and documents, not just a denial.
If this is your situation, call Doubleday Law at (617) 575-2006 or tell us what happened. Housing Court deadlines are short.
