The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently denied a mortgage company’s petition for review and granted the National Labor Relations Board’s cross-petition for enforcement, holding that the NLRB correctly determined that the mortgage company’s workplace rules unreasonably burdened its employees’ ability to discuss legitimate employment matters, protest employer practices and organize in violation of section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. A copy of the opinion in Quicken Loans, Inc. v. NLRB is available at: Link to Opinion. A loan officer began working in the mortgage company’s Scottsdale, Arizona office and signed an employment agreement…
Posts tagged as “Mortgage Law”
The Court of Appeal of the State of California, Third Appellate District, recently held that an order denying interim attorney’s fees under California Civil Code § 2924.12, which is part of the California Homeowner Bill of Rights, is not an appealable order. A copy of the opinion in Sese v. Wells Fargo Bank is available at: Link to Opinion. The plaintiff borrower obtained a mortgage loan, which was subsequently modified, but the plaintiff defaulted on the modified loan also. The defendant mortgagee recorded its notice of default. The plaintiff borrower requested another modification but did not submit the required documentation. The…
The Appellate Court of Illinois, Third District, recently held that a mortgagee could foreclose on a husband and wife’s property held as tenants by the entirety despite that only the husband signed the note. In reaching its decision, the Court relied on the fact that the wife signed the mortgage with her husband, and was aware of the existence and the substance of the note. A copy of the opinion in OneWest Bank FSB v. Cielak is available at: Link to Opinion. The borrowers, husband and wife, purchased a home in Illinois. The borrowers acquired the real estate as tenants by…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently held that HUD reverse mortgage regulations and guidelines do not give the borrower a private cause of action unless the regulations are expressly incorporated into the loan agreement. A copy of the opinion in Johnson v. World Alliance Financial Corp. et al is available at: Link to Opinion. A male borrower entered into a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) with the defendant, lender. The loan was secured by the male borrower’s home, which already had two liens on it. One of the liens was held by the male borrower’s ex-wife. Later, the…
The District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District, recently held that real property liens arising after a final judgment of foreclosure are not discharged by Florida’s lis pendens statute. A copy of the opinion in Ober v. Town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is available at: Link to Opinion. A mortgagee recorded a lis pendens on real property as part of a foreclosure proceeding against a homeowner. Subsequently, the mortgagee obtained a final judgment of foreclosure. However, the foreclosure sale was not conducted for some four years following entry of the judgment of foreclosure. After the foreclosure, and before the foreclosure sale occurred, the…
The U.S. Court of Appeal for the Sixth Circuit recently confirmed that a mortgagee’s alleged failure to notify borrowers of an assignment of the loan does not give rise to a right to cancel under the federal Truth In Lending Act (TILA). A copy of the opinion in Robertson v. US Bank, NA is available at: Link to Opinion. A mortgagee initiated a foreclosure action, and the borrowers responded with a “notice of rescission” to the mortgagee and the mortgagee’s counsel, alleging that the mortgagee had violated the federal Truth in Lending Act and that the mortgagee lacked standing to foreclose.…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that the Nevada homeowners association foreclosure statute facially violated mortgage lenders’ constitutional due process right, and that the Nevada legislature’s enactment of a statute governing foreclosure of liens by HOAs constituted “state action.” A copy of the opinion in Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is available at: Link to Opinion. A purchaser of Nevada real estate who acquired title at a homeowners association foreclosure sale brought an action in Nevada state court seeking to quiet title and a declaration against the mortgage lender, as holder of…
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois recently held that the federal Homeowners Protection Act, 12 U.S.C. § 4901, et seq., preempts state law UDAP and breach of contract claims, when the state law claims are based on allegations “relating to” the HPA’s requirements. A copy of the opinion in Ciolino v. Seterus, Inc. is available here: Link to Opinion. A borrower purchased private mortgage insurance (PMI) in connection with his mortgage loan. He received the required PMI disclosure form, notifying him that his PMI policy would automatically terminate on the date his principal balance was scheduled…
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts recently held that a homeowners association may establish and enforce multiple contemporaneous liens for unpaid common expenses, each with a six-month period of priority over the first mortgage, by filing successive legal actions. A copy of the opinion in Drummer Boy Homes Association, Inc. v. Britton is available at: Link to Opinion. The borrowers purchased a condominium unit, and later began withholding payment of their monthly common expense assessments because of a dispute concerning parking rules and related fines. The condominium association commenced an action to recover the unpaid common expenses and to enforce a…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently held that, under Utah law, only the actual levy of a municipal tax assessment on the property constitutes a defect in, or a lien or encumbrance on, title to the insured property. Because the levy of assessment at issue occurred after the title policy was issued, the Tenth Circuit held that the title insurance policy did not cover a loss incurred when a municipality foreclosed on the insured property. A copy of the opinion in BV Jordanelle, LLC v. Old Republic National Title Insurance Company is available at: Link to Opinion. In…
The U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada recently confirmed that a homeowner association’s foreclosure of its superpriority lien cannot extinguish a property interest of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac while those entities are under the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) conservatorship. In so ruling, the Court also denied class certification, holding that the issue of whether Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac held an interest in the property at issue at the time of a homeowner association foreclosure sale presents an impermissible individualized factual inquiry that would require “mini-trials” as to each affected property. A copy of the opinion…
The District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida, Fourth District, recently reversed summary judgment in favor of a mortgagee, holding that a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the original plaintiff or the substituted successor in interest held the note when the complaint was filed precluded summary judgment, and thus that the borrower’s lack of standing defense was not refuted. A copy of the opinion in Craven-Lazarus v. Pennymac Holdings, LLC is available at: Link to Opinion. A mortgagee sued to foreclose its mortgage. The complaint alleged that it was “entitled to enforce the Note as a…