## Facts

- Emmett Abdoney, an attorney, held a recorded second mortgage on the Petersons’ property securing about \$12,000 in fees and costs.
- The first mortgagee filed a foreclosure action naming the Petersons and junior lienors, including Abdoney.
- Abdoney acquired the first mortgage, was substituted as plaintiff, and filed an amended complaint that did not include (or otherwise join) Abdoney in his separate capacity as holder of the second mortgage.
- The trial court entered a final judgment foreclosing the first mortgage and set the property for judicial sale; the judgment did not set a redemption deadline.
- Janetta York was the high bidder at the foreclosure sale; the clerk filed a certificate of sale.
- After the sale, Abdoney demanded that York satisfy his second mortgage; York sought relief in the original foreclosure case to bar Abdoney’s junior lien.
- Abdoney filed a new action seeking foreclosure and related relief based on the junior mortgage; York counterclaimed for declaratory relief, quiet title, and slander of title.
- The trial court consolidated the matters, ruled that the certificate of sale in the first foreclosure extinguished Abdoney’s junior lien, entered summary judgment for York, and awarded York attorney’s fees and costs.

## Issues

1. Whether a junior mortgage is extinguished by the filing of a certificate of sale following foreclosure of a senior mortgage when the junior lienholder was not joined and bound in the foreclosure in that capacity.
2. Whether York’s prevailing-party attorney’s fees and costs award could stand if the junior lien was not extinguished.

## Decision

- Reversed the summary judgment for York and remanded.
- Held the trial court erred in ruling that the junior lien was extinguished solely by the certificate of sale from the prior senior-mortgage foreclosure.
- Reversed the award of attorney’s fees and costs to York because it depended on York’s status as the prevailing party on the extinguishment ruling.

## Legal Principles

- Foreclosure of a senior mortgage cuts off junior interests only if junior lienholders are made parties and are bound by the judgment in their lienholder capacity.
- Mere notice of the foreclosure and the occurrence of a foreclosure sale (including issuance of a certificate of sale) does not extinguish a junior lien that was not properly joined and adjudicated.
- A purchaser at foreclosure takes subject to a recorded junior lien that was not eliminated by the foreclosure judgment.

## Conclusion

The appellate court held that Abdoney’s second mortgage survived the senior-mortgage foreclosure sale because his junior-lien interest was not joined and bound in that capacity, and it therefore reversed both the quiet-title/summary judgment relief for York and the related prevailing-party fee award.


Abdoney v. York, 903 So. 2d 981 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2d Dist. 2005)