Summary
holding that Rooker-Feldman precluded federal jurisdiction where plaintiff challenged the state court foreclosure judgment under the FDCPA as well as § 1983
Summary of this case from Gonzales v. FirmOpinion
No. 14-1954
08-29-2014
AMINA SHEIKHANI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WELLS FARGO BANK, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION
To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1
Before DIANE P. WOOD, Chief Judge FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge KENNETH F. RIPPLE, Circuit Judge Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 13 C 7716 Samuel Der-Yeghiayan, Judge.
ORDER
In an earlier case, Amina Sheikhani's husband (purportedly acting as her "nominee") sued Wells Fargo Bank under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, see 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692-1692p, and Illinois common law. The suit challenged a state foreclosure judgment that had led to the sale of Sheikhani's house. The district court dismissed that case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. See Dist. of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 486 (1983); Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 416 (1923). We upheld the dismissal. Sheikhani v. Wells Fargo Bank, 526 F. App'x 705 (7th Cir. 2013). Five months later Sheikhani herself sued Wells Fargo and several additional defendants, once more invoking § 1983 and the FDCPA. Concluding that Sheikhani again sought to challenge the foreclosure judgment, the district court applied Rooker-Feldman and dismissed the suit. Sheikhani moved for leave to amend her complaint, but the court denied her request as futile.
Sheikhani appeals from that denial, asserting that the district court abused its discretion by not allowing her to amend her complaint. But the court was right that Rooker-Feldman blocks federal suits that attack state-court judgments, see Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 284 (2005); Arnold v. KJD Real Estate, LLC, 752 F.3d 700, 704-05 (7th Cir. 2014), and Sheikhani does not dispute that her suit mounts such an attack. Her briefs on appeal, and the amended complaint she wants to file, aim squarely at the foreclosure judgment. She contends, based on alleged "breaches" of a pooling and servicing agreement, that "[t]he Foreclosing entity was not the true owner of the loan" and that it lacked standing to foreclose. Rooker-Feldman puts that dispute outside the district court's jurisdiction.
AFFIRMED.