Real Property – Corporate — Mortgages – Foreclosure – Sale Price – Deficiency — Personal Guaranty

Mountain 1^st Bank & Trust v. Galdena, LLC (Lawyers Weekly No. 13-16-0718, 9 pp.) (Ann Marie Calabria, J.) Appealed from Henderson County Superior Court (Mark E. Powell, J.) N.C. App. Unpub.

Holding: Although defendants showed that three lots sold for $26,000, $31,750, and $25,000 between August 2010 and January 2011, this did not prove that the plaintiff-bank paid an insufficient price for the entire 80-acre tract when it bought the land for $850,000 at the May 2011 foreclosure sale.

We affirm summary judgment for the plaintiff-bank in this deficiency action.

Individual lot sales cannot be extrapolated to determine the price of a much larger piece of land, as substantial differences in the amount of land sold necessarily will lead to substantial differences in the total price. The only competent evidence regarding the value of the property as a whole was the affidavit of the bank’s senior vice president, who averred that the bank later sold the property for $162,400.

Defendant Armour’s alleged offer to buy seven lots for $115,500 did not create a genuine issue of material fact. An unaccepted oral offer is not competent evidence of market value.

Defendants failed to present any evidence which would create a genuine issue of material fact concerning the value of the property at the time of the foreclosure sale. As a result, defendants could not rely on G.S. § 45-21.36 as an affirmative defense, and the trial court correctly granted summary judgment in favor of the bank.