The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its much-anticipated opinion in Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP on March 20, ruling the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act does not cover persons engaged in “non-judicial foreclosures” except with respect to a single provision contained in the FDCPA. Colorado,…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a recent change to Ohio law involving notice of a defective lien had no bearing on a bankruptcy trustee’s ability to avoid the defective lien because such notice is irrelevant to a trustee’s status…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently held that Texas law contains no detrimental reliance exception to a lender’s unilateral right to withdraw an acceleration notice. A copy of the opinion in Jatera Corporation v. U.S. Bank National Association is available at:…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held that a mortgagee could unilaterally cancel an erroneously recorded satisfaction of the loan where the borrower had not yet detrimentally relied on the erroneous satisfaction. A copy of the opinion in Trinity 83 Development,…
The Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, recently held that a borrower’s general denial that the mortgagee performed the conditions precedent of the mortgage contract prior to filing a foreclosure action was insufficient under Illinois Supreme Court Rules and therefore constituted a forfeiture of the…
An entity whose principal business is to purchase debt, but did not itself collect the debt it purchased, was found to be a debt collector subject to the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), even though the collection activity was undertaken by other entities.…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held that a mortgagee’s failure to take a deficiency judgment against a borrower who filed bankruptcy in a concluded state foreclosure action precluded the mortgagee from making a deficiency claim in the borrower’s bankruptcy proceeding.…
A trio of bills currently pending in the New York State Senate would extinguish debt, require licensing and impose additional requirements in collection litigation. New York Senate Bill 691 and Senate Bill 2239 would completely extinguish the right to collect debt arising from a consumer…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that merely requiring extrinsic evidence to interpret a provision of a form contract does not render class certification improper, and that absent a more thorough explanation of its reasoning from the trial court, it could…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently held that a borrower’s claims concerning lender-placed insurance practices were barred by res judicata, because the alleged practices were the subject of a class action suit in which the borrower was a class member who…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a trial court judgment in favor of an online real estate marketplace company and against the sellers of real property, finding that an estimate on the website of their property’s value did not violate the…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a tax payment agreement entered into pursuant to Virginia Code section 58.1-3018 was a consumer credit transaction subject to the federal Truth in Lending Act and Electronic Funds Transfer Act. The Court further ruled…