Plaza Home Mortgage v. North American Title Co. CA4/1

BACKGROUND

Following a two-day bench trial, the court issued the following detailed statement

of decision:

"I. STATEMENT OF FACTS

"Plaintiff, Plaza, a Wholesale Residential Mortgage Lender, borrows money from

warehouse lenders to make loans on residential properties. When the loan is funded,

Plaza then sells its loans to investors. In March, 2007, Plaza loaned $1.1 Million Dollars

2 to a Corrections Officer named Oliver Aleta to finance the purchase of a home in

Northridge, California. Mr. Aleta's attorney-in-fact, Edward Peregrino, signed most of

the loan documents, presumably on behalf of his client. On March 1, 2007, Plaza funded

the purchase money loans by way of an $880,000.00 first trust deed and a $220,000.

second trust deed and wired those funds to the title company, Investors Title. On March

2, 2007, after the new deed of trust was recorded at 8:00 a.m., the title company sent one

wire to Wells Fargo in the amount of $769,788.05 to pay off the existing lien [on the

subject real property], and a second wire to the escrow, defendant [North American], in

the amount of $313,204.56, to make disbursements in accordance with Plaza's…