FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION NOV 25 2015
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
LEODEGARIO SALVADOR, No. 13-17456
Plaintiff - Appellant, D.C. No. 2:13-cv-01011-JCM-
GWF
v.
NATIONAL DEFAULT SERVICING MEMORANDUM*
CORPORATION and WELLS FARGO
BANK, NA,
Defendants - Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Nevada
James C. Mahan, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted November 18, 2015**
Before: TASHIMA, OWENS, and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges.
Leodegario Salvador appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment
dismissing his diversity action seeking to quiet title. We have jurisdiction under 28
U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo a dismissal for failure to state a claim under
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Hebbe v. Pliler, 627 F.3d 338, 341 (9th
Cir. 2010). We reverse and remand.
The district court dismissed Salvador’s suit on the basis of its determination
that a homeowner’s association’s (“HOA”) nonjudicial foreclosure based on a
super-priority lien under Nevada law does not extinguish a first security deed of
trust. However, the Nevada Supreme Court has since held in SFR Investments
Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014), that an HOA has a true
super-priority lien on a property for nine months of unpaid assessments, and
nonjudicial foreclosure on this lien extinguishes all other interests in that property.
Accordingly, the district court’s dismissal, to the extent it was based on a contrary
interpretation of the Nevada HOA super-priority statutory scheme, was erroneous.
See, e.g., Olympic Sports Prods., Inc. v. Universal Athletic Sales Co., 760 F.2d
910, 913 (9th Cir. 1985) (federal courts “are bound to follow the decisions of a
state’s highest court in interpreting that state’s law”).
This remand is without prejudice to the due process argument and argument
based on the Glenview West Townhomes Association’s Covenants, Conditions &
Restrictions, which the district court may address in the first instance.
Salvador’s motion for summary judgment is denied as moot.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
2 13-17456