Hernandez

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff’s husband, Alfredo Hernandez, borrowed $752,500 from Your-Best-Rate Financial, LLC, evidenced by his promissory note in that amount (the Note). The Note was secured by a deed of trust on the family’s Rancho Palos Verdes home (the Property). The express terms of the trust deed defined the “borrower” to be “Alfredo Hernandez and [plaintiff], husband and wife and Elizabeth Hernandez, a single woman.” The deed of trust defined the term “Note” to mean “the promissory note signed by Borrower,” i.e., the $752,500 note signed on January 18, 2008. Plaintiff, her husband, and her daughter

2 Elizabeth all signed the deed of trust, which included a provision authorizing sale of the Property in the event of a default on the payments due under the Note. The original lender, Your-Best-Rate Financial, LLC, assigned the Note to CitiMortgage, Inc. on the same day it was executed via a first allonge to the Note. A copy of the Note included in the appellate record, which we will later describe in more detail, also includes a second attached allonge that indicates “CitiMortgage, Inc. [b]y and through its Attorney in Fact PNMAC Capital Management LLC” endorsed the note in…