Thomas

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. Facts

Anthony Thomas, Jr. (plaintiff) inherited a townhome that is part of the Lakewood Village Townhomes Homeowner’s Association (the Association). In 2019 and 2020, plaintiff’s tenant in the townhome violated several of the Association’s rules and plaintiff was assessed fines for those violations. By March 2020, plaintiff owed the Association a total of $16,790.27 from the violations as well as unpaid annual assessment dues. The Association retained Larry Rothman (Rothman), an attorney, to file an assessment lien against plaintiff’s property and to initiate nonjudicial foreclosure proceedings to collect the unpaid amount. Rothman carried out those duties: He recorded an assessment lien on July 10, 2019; he recorded a notice of default against the property on March 26, 2020; and he recorded a notice of a trustee’s sale on October 8, 2020, with a foreclosure

2 sale date in November 2020. By the time of the notice on trustee’s sale, plaintiff’s amount due had climbed to $23,907.27.

II. Procedural Background

A. Pleadings Plaintiff sued the Association in June 2020. Four months later, plaintiff filed the operative first amended…