A stack of unauthenticated documents was no match for one lender's affidavit
A borrower's fraud allegations could not save him from foreclosure on a Dayton property, an Ohio appeals court ruled May 22, 2026.
The Second District Court of Appeals affirmed a Montgomery County trial court decision handing Kiavi Funding summary judgment and a foreclosure decree against Native Training Solutions, Inc. and its owner, Pierce Calloway. For lenders, the case is a textbook illustration of how a clean file and a well-supported affidavit can carry foreclosure across the finish line without a trial – even when the borrower turns up swinging.
The dispute traces back to a $220,900 loan Kiavi extended to Native Training Solutions, secured by a property at 100-102 Boltin Street in Dayton. Calloway, the company's owner and managing partner, signed the note and the mortgage and gave Kiavi a personal guarantee on top. When the borrower stopped paying, Kiavi accelerated the loan and sued in June 2025. It sought the unpaid principal of $95,500, interest at 19.49% per annum running from February 1, 2025, late fees, attorney fees, and the proceeds of a sale of the property.
Calloway answered without a lawyer. He did not admit or deny the allegations. Instead, he asked the court to look at four homes tied to Kiavi-financed deals and said those loans were riddled with misinformation, misrepresentation, and possibly outright fraud. He listed fourteen questions he said had gone unanswered. Native Training Solutions never answered the suit at all.
In August, Kiavi moved for summary judgment, backed by an affidavit from employee Barbara Sweazen authenticating the note, the mortgage, the personal guarantee, and the payment history. Calloway's response was a stack of unauthenticated documents: spreadsheets on other properties, unsigned letters from other owners, county property records, an unsigned proposed settlement agreement, and an internet crimes complaint form. He filed no affidavit. He never denied signing the personal guarantee. He never challenged the unpaid balance.
The trial court granted summary judgment in October and entered the foreclosure decree.
On appeal, Presiding Judge Ronald C. Lewis, joined by Judges Epley and Hanseman, found Calloway's pro se brief failed to meet the rules for appellate briefs but addressed his argument anyway, in the interest of seeing the case through. The opinion ran through what a lender has to prove in an Ohio foreclosure: that it holds the note and mortgage, that the borrower is in default, that all conditions have been met, and the amount due. Sweazen's affidavit, the court found, did the work on every element.
Calloway's fraud pitch did not survive either. He had not pleaded fraud with the particularity Ohio civil rules require, which waived the defense. And Native Training Solutions – the company that actually purchased the property – never answered the complaint and never responded to summary judgment.
The judgment stands. Kiavi keeps its win and its path to a sale of the Dayton property.
