MTC Fin., Inc. v. Nationstar Mortg.

*813 Defendant Nationstar Mortgage LLC (Nationstar) appeals an order denying its claim to surplus funds deposited with the court by plaintiff MTC Financial, Inc., doing business as Trustee Corps (trustee), after the trustee's nonjudicial foreclosure sale of real property on which two deeds of trust were filed for recording simultaneously and indexed sequentially. Nationstar contends the court erred in concluding that although its deed of trust was indexed after the other deed of trust, it was the senior lienholder and under Civil Code section 2924k was not entitled to any of the sale proceeds. We conclude the trial court properly determined the relative priorities and, thus, shall affirm the court's distribution order.

Factual and Procedural Background

In 2003, Pan Sparrow obtained two loans from Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. (Countrywide), each secured by a deed of trust on certain real property located in Hercules, California. One loan was a single family mortgage (mortgage) in the principal amount of $205,080 and the other loan was a home equity line of credit (HELOC or equity line) in the principal amount of $15,000. Both deeds of trust were recorded with the Contra Costa…