The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently affirmed a judgment in favor of the furnisher of credit information in an action filed under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and other claims under state common law. In so ruling, the Sixth Circuit held that the FCRA’s preemption provisions apply to state common law claims concerning a furnisher’s reporting obligations, joining similar rulings by the Seventh and Second Circuits. A copy of the opinion in Scott v. First Southern National Bank is available at: Link to Opinion. The plaintiffs owned several investment properties and obtained a $300,000 commercial…
Posts tagged as “Sixth Circuit”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently affirmed dismissal of a homeowner’s claims under the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), where the homeowner plaintiff only signed the mortgage, but not the note evidencing the loan. The Sixth Circuit’s holding reinforced that a plaintiff who does not have personal obligations under the loan agreement is not a “borrower,” and thus cannot assert claims under RESPA, which extends causes of action only to “borrowers.” A copy of the opinion in Keen v. Helson is available at: Link to Opinion. Husband and wife borrowers took out a loan secured by…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that a plaintiff lacked Article III standing to sue a consumer reporting agency under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for allegedly failing to disclose all information in his file. In so ruling, the Sixth Circuit held that the alleged deprivation of information had no consequences for the consumer and imposed no real risk of harm to establish injury in fact. A copy of the opinion in Huff v. TeleCheck Services, Inc. is available at: Link to Opinion. The consumer reporting agency (CRA) advises merchants on whether it should…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently reversed the dismissal of a breach of contract claim in a putative class action involving short-term cash advance loans, finding that the contract at issue was ambiguous because it provided two inconsistent definitions of “annual percentage rate” that could not be reconciled. A copy of the opinion in Laskaris, et al. v. Fifth Third Bank is available at: Link to Opinion. The defendant bank created a short-term cash advance program for eligible customers who held checking accounts with the bank. Specifically, the bank would deposit loans up to $1,000 directly…
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 as a judicial lien creditor. Accordingly, the Sixth Circuit affirmed the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel’s upholding of the bankruptcy court’s denial of the mortgagee’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. A copy of the opinion in Donald Harker v. PNC Mortg. Co. is available at: Link to Opinion. The borrowers filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition that included…
In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that, because a complaint’s sole federal claim under the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 did not provide a private cause of action, and because the state law claims did not implicate significant federal issues, the trial court lacked jurisdiction. Accordingly, the Sixth Circuit vacated the trial court’s judgment with instructions to remand the case to state court. A copy of the opinion in Estate of Cornell v. Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC is available at: Link to Opinion. The borrower died with an outstanding…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that a debtor’s claim seeking to use a bankruptcy trustee’s § 544(a) strong-arm power to avoid a mortgage on the ground that it was never perfected did not require appellate review of the state court foreclosure judgment, and therefore was not barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. A copy of the opinion in In re Isaacs is available at: Link to Opinion. In 2003, the debtor and her husband took out a home-equity loan secured by a mortgage on their home in Kentucky. The original mortgagee did not immediately record…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that a consumer plaintiff’s breach of contract claim against a defendant bank failed where the bank processed the consumer’s transactions in accordance with the terms of the agreement with the consumer, even though the transactions were not processed in the order they were made by the consumer, which resulted in a greater number of non-sufficient funds (“NSF”) charges. The Court further held that the bank did not violate the agreement’s limit of five NSF charges per day where it initially charged eight NSF fees to the account before manually…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a plaintiff asserting only a bare violation of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) failed to identify a cognizable injury traceable to the defendant’s alleged conduct, and therefore failed to demonstrate Article III standing. In so ruling, the Sixth Circuit reversed the trial court, and dismissed the appeal and underlying case for lack of jurisdiction. A copy of the opinion in Hagy v. Demers & Adams is available at: Link to Opinion. After the borrowers defaulted on their mortgage loan, the loan servicer initiated foreclosure proceedings against them. Subsequently,…
The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Sixth Circuit recently held that the constructive notice provisions of section 1301.401 of the Ohio Revised Code do not limit a bankruptcy trustee’s avoidance powers as a hypothetical judgment lien creditor under section 544(a)(1) of the federal Bankruptcy Code. A copy of the opinion in In re Oakes is available at: Link to Opinion. In 2013, two debtors filed a petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. The debtors’ schedules listed the subject property and three mortgages against the subject property, two of which were held by the same mortgagee (“lender”). In 2014, the bankruptcy trustee…
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently concluded that distributing all of a company’s cash to its owners after a class action settlement was reached but before the court’s order to pay became final, thus leaving the company without the ability to pay class counsel’s fees or administration costs as required under the settlement agreement, did not constitute contempt. The trial court had originally determined that the distribution of the money constituted contempt because the defendant had knowingly violated the court’s order to pay class counsel’s fees. The Sixth Circuit, however, concluded that a finding of contempt is limited to…
In a case involving a claim on a fire insurance policy relating to damaged real estate, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that the insurance policy’s two-year limitations provision did not apply to a claim brought under section 500.2006(4) of Michigan Complied Laws because it was not a claim “under the policy,” and instead Michigan’s “catch-all” six-year period of limitations applied. In addition, and contrary to two previous unpublished rulings, the Sixth Circuit determined that a private cause of action exists under section 500.2006(4) Accordingly, the Sixth Circuit determined that the insured’s claim was timely,…