Anderson v. Zimbelman, No. 201302072014, 2014 N.D. LEXIS 25 (N.D. Sup. Ct. Feb. 13, 2014)

(plaintiff was the assignee of a bank which had loaned money to debtors in exchange for receiving three mortgages; defendants were judgment creditors of the debtors; the judgment creditors had executed on their $727,495 judgment, and the sheriff held a sale at which the bank bid $495,000 and received a certificate of sale for the property;  the bank did not pay $495,000 to the sheriff, and the sheriff returned the execution unsatisfied; the bank paid $5,097.50 in commission and fees for the sale; the bank and judgment creditors later signed an agreement under which they agreed that the bank would not seek fees from the judgment creditors, that the judgment creditors’ debt was subordinated to the banks’ mortgages, and that the bank’s foreclosure of its mortgages would extinguish the judgment creditors’ judgment lien; when the bank’s assignee filed its foreclosure action, the judgment creditors argued that they were entitled to a $210,977.93 surplus from the sheriff's sale on the grounds of conversion, fraud, and specific performance; in affirming the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the assignee, the court ruled that the judgment creditors failed to prove fraud or constructive fraud; the agreement clearly spelled out that the judgment creditors’ lien would be subordinated to the bank’s mortgages, and the bank’s agreement to forbear collecting a portion of the fees from the judgment creditors constituted sufficient consideration).