Financial Services

Lawyers who owned an undercapitalized debt collection firm were properly held to be alter egos of the debt collection firm for purposes of liability under the FDCPA and the UCL as well as for attorney fee under CCP 1021.5. Read More

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in bifurcating and trying first plaintiff's UCL claim even though the claim was based on an alleged FDCPA violation and defendant was entitled to a jury trial of the FDCPA claim.  The UCL claim is equitable.  Equitable first is the rule in California.  Also, that procedure serves the UCL's purpose of affording… Read More

Civ. Code 5655(a) provides that payments a homeowner makes to an HOA for delinquent assessments must to allocated first to repay the delinquent assessments and only thereafter to pay attorney fees, costs, and interest incurred in connection with the HOA's attempt to collect the delinquent assessments.  This decision holds that the protections afforded by that section benefit the public, in… Read More

The CFPB's funding mechanism is constitutional.  Congress acts in accordance with the Appropriations Clause if it enacts a measure that identifies the source from which money may be drawn for a specified purpose.  Congress need not set the amount; it can allow the executive or agency draw on the authorized source up to a stated cap.  The appropriation also need… Read More

Affirming an order certifying a class in this CLRA action for falsely advertising that defendant's dog food promoted healthy joints in dogs, the Ninth Circuit holds that the district court did not err in holding that damages were a common issue based on an expert's report showing how a study could be conducted to determine how much average consumers valued… Read More

Plaintiff tried to refinance her Wells Fargo home loan with another lender but that effort was thwarted by a fraudulent third party's lien on the property.  Plaintiff contends that Wells Fargo should have helped her remove the fraudulent lien, but instead it started foreclosure proceedings on her loan.  She filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to avoid the foreclosure and listed… Read More

Unless Congress clearly states otherwise, it is presumed not to have waived sovereign immunity.  This clear statement rule requires either an express statement that Congress is stripping away sovereign immunity or a statute that creates a cause of action and explicitly authorizes suit against a government entity on that cause of action.  The FCRA waives sovereign immunity by the latter… Read More

Following Mejia v. DACM, Inc. (2020) 54 Cal.App.5th 691 and Maldonado v. Fast Auto Loans (2021) 60 Cal.App.5th 710 and rejecting Hodges v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC (9th Cir. 2021) 21 F.4th 535, this decision holds that a suit alleging UCL and CLRA claims and seeking an injunction against allegedly false advertising which would benefit both existing and future customers… Read More

Following Komarova v. National Credit Acceptance, Inc. (2009) 175 Cal.App.4th 324, this decision holds that the absolute litigation privilege generally does not apply to Rosenthal FDCPA claims, even to claims that the defendant debt collector manufactured false evidence to support its debt collection lawsuits. Read More

Plaintiffs claimed that defendant improperly charged them use tax on its lease-end vehicle turn-in fee.  This decision holds that the suit was properly dismissed because plaintiffs did not first submit their claims to respondent California Department of Tax and Fee Administration and obtain its definitive ruling on the taxability question. Plaintiffs' claims were barred by their failure to exhaust administrative… Read More

California recognizes a form of the filed rate doctrine for rates or prices approved by state or municipal regulatory agencies, but the state doctrine is more limited and not as restrictive as its federal counterpart.  The California filed rate doctrine did not bar plaintiff's class action insofar as it sought injunctive relief (against false advertising) and punitive damages under the… Read More

Yee owned a home in LA; Hon owned one in San Francisco.  They were romantically involved and were business partners in a company that ordered $141,000 of goods from Panrox, giving Panrox deeds of trust on both houses.  The business didn't pay Panrox which commenced an action to collect the debt.  Court records reflected it was settled in 1998, and… Read More

The Rooker-Feldman doctrine did not apply to bar this FDCPA claim against the debt collection attorneys who had filed a memorandum of costs after winning judgment in a debt collection suit.  The state court judgment was entered before the cost memo and did not rule on its propriety.  Hence, the federal court was not being asked to review any state… Read More

Plaintiff entered into a license agreement allowing defendant to use part of plaintiff's property to make films.  The license agreement stated expressly that it was not a lease and landlord-tenant laws did not apply.  This decision holds that the advantage of a fast unlawful detainer proceeding is a private right that a landlord can waive and that plaintiff did by… Read More

Before a nonjudicial foreclosure sale, the borrower/owner filed a worngful foreclosure suit against the deed of trust beneficiary and recorded a lis pendens.  This case holds that the purchaser at the nonjudicial foreclosure sale who thereafter brought an unlawful detainer action against the borrower/owner was wrongly awarded judgment because it did not prove it duly perfected title given the lis… Read More

Disagreeing with Torres v. Adventist Health System/West (2022) 77 Cal.App.5th 500 and Naranjo v. Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, Inc. (2023) 90 Cal.App.5th 1193, this decision holds that a plaintiff cannot state an actionable UCL or CLRA claim based on emergency room management fees charged by hospitals if the hospital complies with state law in posting its fee schedule on… Read More

Borrowers lacked standing to challenge the assignment of their deed of trust from the prior beneficiary to La Salle Bank as Trustee for  WaMu 2006-AR19 when the correct name of the assignee was La Salle Bank as Trustee for WaMu Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates Series 2006-AR19 Trust.  Whether an abbreviation of the full name or a misnomer, the incorrect designation of… Read More

A debt falls within the scope of the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act even if the consumer being dunned does not actually owe the debt and did not enter into the consumer credit transaction that the debt collector is attempting to collect.  Under Civ. Code, § 1788.2(f), a consumer debt is money due or owing, or alleged to be… Read More

Here, a lender sued on a HELOC loan which provided for monthly payments, gave the lender the discretion to accelerate the loan on default, and provided for any remaining balance to fall due on a specified date.  This decision holds that the HELOC called for separate, divisible performances by the borrower--namely, the monthly payments.  So that the lender could sue… Read More

This decision holds that separate acts in the course of a collection action may constitute independent violations of the FDCPA and that the FDCPA's one-year limitations period runs separately from each of those violations.  To constitute a separate violation, the litigation conduct must be the last opportunity for the debt collector to comply with the FDCPA and must occur on… Read More