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Posts published by “Maurice Wutscher LLP”

The attorneys of Maurice Wutscher are seasoned business lawyers with substantial experience in business law, financial services litigation and regulatory compliance. They represent consumer and commercial financial services companies, including depository and non-depository mortgage lenders and servicers, as well as mortgage loan investors, financial asset buyers and sellers, loss mitigation companies, third-party debt collectors, and other financial services providers. They have defended scores of putative class actions, have substantial experience in federal appellate court litigation and bring substantial trial and complex bankruptcy experience. They are leaders and influencers in their highly specialized area of law. They serve in leadership positions in industry associations and regularly publish and speak before national audiences.

California Appeals Court Rules Probable Cause Defeats Malicious Prosecution Claim

The Court of Appeal of the State of California, Second Appellate District, recently affirmed the trial court’s ruling in favor a bank and its employee as to a plaintiff’s malicious prosecution claim. In so ruling, the Appellate Court held that the doctrine of the law of the case does not bar application of the doctrine of collateral estoppel to plaintiff’s malicious prosecution claim, and that a magistrate’s determination in the plaintiff’s criminal proceeding on the issue of probable cause defeats the malicious prosecution claim as a matter of law. A copy of the opinion is available at: http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B258021.PDF. The plaintiff sued…

NY Appeals Court Holds Statute of Limitations Does Not Bar Action to Cancel Mortgage

The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, recently held that the statute of limitations does not bar an action to cancel a mortgage based upon a forged deed. A copy of the opinion is available here. The plaintiff was the administrator of her deceased father’s estate. The decedent and his sister (the “aunt”) inherited from their mother a house in Brooklyn as tenants-in-common. Several years later, in May 2000, the aunt executed a quitclaim deed conveying her one-half interest in the property to her daughter (the “cousin”). In February 2001, the cousin recorded a corrective deed that purported to…

TCPA Roundup: As Big Data Grows, So Does Scale of TCPA Violations

As big data grows, so does the scale of TCPA violations, and with that the settlements; one of the largest in TCPA history was in the news last week. In a California district court, attorneys who guided consumers in suing a bank for a $32 million settlement were denied a bid to increase their fees to $8 million. The settlement was the largest TCPA deal to be approved at the time, settling the case in which the plaintiffs claimed they had received automated phone calls from the defendants without their consent. However, this past July saw a $75.5 million settlement granted preliminary approval in…