Mealey's Mortgage Lending : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Mortgage Lending

June 01, 2023
Mortgage Lender Granted Summary Judgment In Loan Modification Spat

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge granted a bank’s motion for summary judgment after finding that a woman failed to establish her claims that the bank violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) or Washington state law in its handling of her mortgage loan modification.
May 31, 2023
2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Mortgage Dispute For Failure To State A Claim

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a complaint filed by a woman and her son against their mortgage loan servicer for failure to state a claim under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) or the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
May 31, 2023
RESPA Claims Survive Wells Fargo’s Motion To Dismiss In California Federal Court

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge partially denied Wells Fargo’s motion to dismiss and found that a couple has alleged damages in their third amended complaint sufficient for their Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) violation claim to move forward.
May 24, 2023
Summary Judgment In Foreclosure Suit Affirmed By Nevada Supreme Court

CARSON CITY, Nev. — The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that a home equity line of credit agreement (HELOC) is both a negotiable instrument and a promissory note, affirming an award for summary judgment and dismissal in favor of the loan servicer and trustee.
May 24, 2023
Florida Federal Judge Again Finds For Mortgage Loan Servicer On Remand

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge entered a final judgment in favor of mortgage loan servicer Ocwen Financial Corp. and several of its affiliates after finding on remand that claims asserted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are covered by a consent judgment the parties entered into in 2013.
May 23, 2023
Judge: CARES Act, RESPA Claims Survive Initial Review In Pro Se Complaint

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge dismissed most of the named defendants in a lawsuit filed by self-represented litigants who allege that a company used bait-and-switch tactics to entice them into a loan forbearance program because there were no allegations made against them in an amended complaint but allowed certain claims against two mortgage companies to proceed.
May 22, 2023
Borrowers, Lenders Agree To Settle Convenience Fee Class Action Dispute

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Parties involved in a class action between borrowers and mortgage loan servicers PHH Mortgage Corp. and Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC over the loan servicers’ alleged charging of illegal “processing fees” to the borrowers for paying their mortgage loans over the telephone or online on May 19 filed a joint notice of a proposed final approval order in a Florida federal court, agreeing to settle the case for nearly $2.8 million.
May 22, 2023
Illinois Appeals Court Remands Reverse Mortgage Dispute To Allow Competency Defense

CHICAGO — An Illinois appeals court found that a lower court erred in striking the affirmative defense of a son who claims that his mother lacked the mental capacity to agree to a reverse mortgage and vacated the summary judgment award granted to the mortgage company and judgment of foreclosure and sale.
May 22, 2023
Texas Supreme Court Affirms Refinance Lender Foreclosure Claim Is Time-Barred

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s decision that the common-law doctrine of equitable subrogation did not grant a refinance lender an alternative means of foreclosure and that its claims are barred by the applicable four-year statute of limitation.
May 22, 2023
Settlement Reached In Suit Alleging Lender Improperly Denied Loan Modification

CLEVELAND — An Ohio federal judge agreed to dismiss a complaint alleging that a mortgage lender failed to allow a loan modification after borrowers fell delinquent because of circumstances connected to the COVID-19 pandemic after the parties agreed to a confidential settlement.
May 22, 2023
4th Amended Complaint Filed In Wells Fargo COVID-19 Mortgage Forbearance Dispute

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of homeowners who sued Wells Fargo for allegedly putting their residential mortgages into forbearance without their consent during the COVID-19 pandemic on May 19 filed a fourth amended complaint in response to an order on the lender’s motion to dismiss.
May 19, 2023
Due Process Rights In Foreclosure Action Scheduled For Supreme Court Conference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A woman’s petition for a stay in her case pending in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging dismissal of her appeal in a foreclosure action for lack of jurisdiction, in which the panel found that the petitioner’s notice of appeal was untimely and that the panel did not have jurisdiction to hear the appeal, was denied by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and the case was scheduled for the court’s June 1 conference.
May 19, 2023
6th Circuit: Statute Of Limitations Bars Judicial Foreclosure Action

CINCINNATI — A federal judge in Tennessee did not err in finding that a lender’s failure to demand a final balloon payment on a home equity line of credit (HELOC) for more than 10 years after the payment became due renders later judicial foreclosure proceedings time-barred, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed.
May 15, 2023
5th Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment In Favor Of Loan Servicer

NEW ORLEANS — In its second ruling in the case, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld findings by a federal magistrate judge in Texas, adopted on remand by a federal judge in Texas, that a predecessor in interest of PNC Bank NA had a right to foreclose on a Texas woman’s home.
May 09, 2023
FCRA Sovereign Immunity Waiver Ruling Does Not Warrant High Court Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny review of a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s finding that the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) waives sovereign immunity of the federal government and, thus, permits a borrower to sue the U.S. Department of Agriculture for allegedly misreporting that the borrower was past due in his mortgage loan payments because such review would be premature, the borrower argues in an opposition brief filed in the Supreme Court.
May 08, 2023
Majority Of Borrower’s Claims In Suit Over Home Refinance Denial Axed

FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal judge in Texas dismissed a majority of claims brought by a borrower in lawsuit against his mortgage lender and loan servicer in a dispute over the borrower’s denial of a mortgage refinance loan, ruling that the lender failed to clearly move to dismiss the borrower’s claim for fraud by nondisclosure.
May 01, 2023
Justices Will Not Hear Borrower’s Appeal Over Timeliness Of TILA Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 1 denied a pro se borrower’s petition for writ of certiorari, in which he asked the Supreme Court to consider whether a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel erred in affirming the dismissal of his state and federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA), unfair trade practices and common-law claims as either time-barred or insufficiently pleaded on the merits, based on alleged conflicts with Supreme Court, federal appellate court and Connecticut Supreme Court precedent.
April 28, 2023
Mortgage Assignee Barred Under Statute Of Limitations From Foreclosing On Loan

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York court did not err in canceling and discharging a mortgage because a lender’s filing of foreclosure proceedings in 2009 accelerated the borrower’s mortgage debt and, thus, started the running of the six-year statute of limitations period, a panel of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, ruled in affirming in a per curiam opinion.
April 26, 2023
Mortgagor’s Statute Of Limitations Argument Rejected By Colorado Justices

DENVER — The Colorado Court of Appeals erred in determining that a lender’s attempt to foreclose on a borrower’s home was barred by the statute of limitations since it did not seek to accelerate the mortgage loan until more than six years after the borrower’s bankruptcy discharge because no evidence exists showing that the lender “accelerated payment on the mortgage agreement,” the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in reversing and remanding.
April 25, 2023
Pro Se Petitioner Must Pay Docketing Fee To Proceed In Case Over Foreclosure

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 24 denied a pro se petitioner’s request to proceed in forma pauperis in her petition over the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ dismissal of her appeal in a foreclosure action for lack of jurisdiction, in which the panel found that the petitioner’s notice of appeal was untimely and that the panel did not have jurisdiction to hear the appeal.
April 21, 2023
Rehearing Sought In Appeal Over Loan Servicer Stay, Discharge Violations

SAN FRANCISCO — A debtor borrower asks a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel to rehear her appeal of a Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) ruling that a mortgage loan servicer’s violation of a federal bankruptcy court’s automatic stay and discharge was harmless, arguing that the panel, inter alia, overlooked and misapprehended statutory and constitutional law in issuing its ruling.
April 21, 2023
Dismissal Motion Mooted In Loan Escrow Suit After Parties Settle Claims

SAN ANTONIO — A federal judge in Texas mooted a motion to dismiss filed by a mortgage lender in a lawsuit stemming from the lender’s conversion of a borrower’s loan to an escrow loan after the borrower failed to pay his property taxes after the parties agreed to settle their claims, according to a text order placed on the court’s docket.
April 21, 2023
Lender’s Foreclosure Action Revoked Acceleration Of Mortgage, Panel Rules

SPOKANE, Wash. — A Washington appellate court panel overturned a trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a borrower in a foreclosure action, ruling that a mortgage lender affirmatively revoked the acceleration of the borrower’s defaulted loan by initiating a judicial foreclosure, thus starting a new statute of limitations period.
April 21, 2023
Claim Trimmed In Lender’s Suit Over Mortgage Repayment Loans

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York justice partially dismissed claims in a breach of contract lawsuit brought by a man against his nephew and his nephew’s wife stemming from a loan deal for the purchase and finance of property, ruling that while the man has sufficiently amended certain claims in a proposed second amended complaint, his unjust enrichment claim is duplicative of a constructive trust claim he has properly pleaded.
April 21, 2023
Government Weighs In On Legal Questions Posed In Appraisal Discrimination Suit

BALTIMORE — The U.S. government filed a statement of interest in Maryland federal court addressing questions raised by a mortgage lender in a lawsuit brought by minority homeowners who allege that a real estate appraisal company and the lender violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) by undervaluing their home in an appraisal based on the borrowers’ race and denying them a refinance loan based on that undervaluation, respectively.