No
The plaintiff withdrew the complaint and the case was dismissed “ with prejuduce”
The Blaseys kept the house
Must have paid something of what they owed but maybe not all
Or dismissal with prejudice means there could be no further lawsuit by this plaintiff - so they reached a settlement with the blaseys
Either paid off the mortgage or handed the debt holder the keys to the house
This seems like a benign case and ruling unless the blaseys developed some animus toward the judge for some reason
They lost the case. The lender then reached an agreement with them and asked for a dismissal. But they did lose the case.
“The Blaseys kept the house”
I don’t see that in the snippet of the record posted here. What I see is that after a legal fight, the two sides came to an agreement. It might have been:
1. The plaintiffs knew they weren’t going to prevail, so they came to terms, and the Blaseys kept the house on terms mostly favorable to them;
2. The defendants knew they weren’t going to successfully defend, so they came to terms, on terms less than favorable to them.
Having seen a few of these up close with folks I know, I’d be inclined toward 2.
Traditionally in Maryland, lenders had a big club. Maryland has an anti-deficiency law. If the bank gets your house in foreclosure, or if you give them a deed in lieu of foreclosure, and the bank resells it for less than the outstanding amount of the mortgage, outstanding interest, fines, and penalties, the bank can sue you for the deficiency, as long as the deficiency isn’t caused by an action of the lender that “shocks the conscience of the court.” So, if you owe $80K on a house with a potential market value of $90K or $100K, but the bank manages to foreclose, if the bank sells it for $60K, you’re going to owe the bank $20K. If they sell it for $1, the court’s conscience will be shocked. But the lender has wide latitude.
In the recent crisis (2008 -), banks played hardball with folks, especially those trying to walk away from an upside down property. In periods before that, when a bank tried to foreclose, if you fought it, the bank might threaten to come after you for the deficiency after they won the foreclosure... unless you surrendered, and agreed to the terms the bank wanted. Then they would agree to forego chasing you for the outstanding debt, which would be represented by an agreed-upon dismissal with prejudice.
Also, their house night have had a sign out front for 3-4 months saying it was for sale, and it’s possible there was an add on banner saying Foreclosure. I’m just speculating. But if it did, that would have been an embarrassment to her.