The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.
Even though it did not expressly so state, given the parties’ prior settlement negotiations, a collection attorney's voicemail message to debtor sufficiently disclosed even to the least sophisticated debtor that the message was from a debt collector. Read More
Now-defunct Nevada statute violated due process by granting homeowners’ associations priority over mortgage lenders and other senior lienholders and allowing them foreclose liens for unpaid dues without requiring notice to a senior lienholder unless it affirmatively requested notice. Read More
A homeowners association’s post-foreclosure quiet title action stated a viable claim against the former owner who might challenge the foreclosure; hence, the former owner was not fraudulently joined and the federal courts lacked diversity jurisdiction. Read More
A borrower lacks standing to sue alleging his loan was transferred to a securitized trust after its closing date because a late transfer is voidable, not void. Read More
When a home loan borrower defends a lender’s suit, based on a demand for rescission under the Truth in Lending Act, the lender’s lien is not automatically invalidated; instead, the court must decide whether correct TILA disclosures were given and whether the borrower should be required to tender back the borrowed sums before the lien is invalidated. Read More
The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act’s five-day debt validation notice requirement applies not only to the first debt collector attempting to collect a given debt, but also to each later debt collector attempting to collect that same debt. Read More
A homeowners’ association was properly ordered to pay compensatory damages to the bankrupt for knowingly violating the bankruptcy discharge injunction by suing to quiet title, following non-judicial foreclosure of its lien on the bankrupt’s condo, based in part on pre-bankruptcy unpaid HOA dues. Read More
Federal Debt Collection Practices Act’s one-year statute of limitations began to run when debtor discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) that a collections suit was filed against her—not when the suit was actually filed. Read More
Leave to amend to state a UCL claim was properly denied in a mass action by defaulted home loan borrowers as the proposed amendment showed plaintiffs were improperly joined but alleged no facts to support the conclusion they were overcharged. Read More
A borrower who alleges defects in the transfer of her mortgage loan which render it void, can sufficiently establish the prejudice element of her wrongful foreclosure claim simply by alleging that the foreclosure was carried out by a party having no right to do so. Read More
The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act does not ban as false or misleading conduct collection letters sent by special counsel employed by the Attorney General to collect debts owed the state, using Attorney General stationery at the Attorney General’s direction. Read More
Today the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, -- S.Ct. --, No. 13-1339, 2016 WL 2842447, at *6 (U.S. May 16, 2016). In a victory for defendant Spokeo, the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, on grounds that the lower court—in finding Robins had Article III standing to sue—had erroneously focused only… Read More
Borrower’s pre-foreclosure securitization suit was properly dismissed because judicially noticeable documents show that the challenged loan transfer was valid, not void as the borrower alleged. Read More
A loan servicer, and its principal, the loan’s owner, can be held liable to a borrower for negligence in handling the borrower's loan modification application; however, the borrower has no breach of contract claim for the loan servicer’s failure to offer a permanent loan modification after performance of a non-HAMP trial period plan. Read More
Though Cordray’s initial recess appointment to head the CFPB was invalid, his later regular appointment was proper and his later ratification of acts taken during the recess appointment period is sufficient to validate acts the CFPB took during that period. Read More
A lender’s silence in response to the borrower’s request for payoff quotes and reinstatement demands is not First Amendment-protected activity, so the lender’s Anti-SLAPP motion was properly denied. Read More
An unaccepted Rule 68 offer of judgment for individual injunctive relief and the full amount of statutory damages for the named plaintiff does not moot out a putative class action even when backed by a deposit in court of the statutory damages. Read More
A South Carolina judicial foreclosure judgment barred borrower’s California suit for wrongful foreclosure. Read More
