Coleen Tom v. Gmac Mortgage, LLC

MEMORANDUM

In these consolidated appeals, Coleen Tom and Joycelyn W. Unciano appeal pro se from the district court’s judgment dismissing their action arising out of foreclosure proceedings. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review for an abuse of discretion the district court’s decision whether to exercise jurisdiction under the Declaratory JudgmentAct. Gov’t Emps. Ins. Co. v. Dizol, 133 F.3d 1220, 1225 (9th Cir.1998) (en banc). We affirm.

The district court properly exercised its sound discretion not to exercise jurisdiction over the declaratory judgment claim seeking to have the assignment of the mortgage to GMAC Mortgage declared invalid, as the validity of the mortgage was also at issue in the parallel state court judicial foreclosure proceedings. See Brillhart v. Excess Ins. Co. of Am., 316 U.S. 491, 494 , 62 S.Ct. 1173 , 86 L.Ed. 1620 (1942) (“Ordinarily it would be uneconomical as well as vexatious for a federal court to proceed in a declaratory judgment suit where another suit is pending in a state court presenting the same issues, not governed by federal law, between the same parties.”); Gov’t Emps. Ins. Co., 133 F.3d at 1225 (“If there are parallel state…