Financial Services

Plaintiff had standing to sue under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, but not the UCL for unwanted text messages soliciting him to renew a gym membership, but the claims were properly dismissed because plaintiff expressly consented to receive the messages by giving his phone number to the gym, and merely allowing his gym membership to lapse did not revoke that… Read More

District court abused its discretion by approving a class action settlement which provided no actual benefit to class members in exchange for release of their FDCPA claims.  Read More

The dismissal of a borrower’s fourth foreclosure delay lawsuit is affirmed based on res judicata and a lack of merit in the borrower’s securitization arguments.  Read More

Prospective employer violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by including a release of claims in the same document as the statutorily required notice that it might obtain a credit report on the applicant for employment purposes.  Read More

General legislation covers Indian tribes unless they are expressly excluded, so the Dodd-Frank Act is interpreted to regulate for-profit consumer lending enterprises of Indian tribes.  Read More

The sue-and-be-sued provision in Fannie Mae's statutory charter does not confer federal jurisdiction over suits against Fannie Mae or allow it to remove those suits to federal court absent some other basis for federal jurisdiction.  Read More

An attorney engaged in debt collection and violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by sending a homeowner a letter demanding payment of delinquent homeowners association dues and threatening to file a lien on the homeowner’s property unless the dues were paid within 25 days, thus overshadowing the FDCPA-required notice that the homeowner had 30 days to demand validation of… Read More

When a dealer spot delivers a car but later recalls the buyer to rewrite the deal, the dealer may charge interest from the date of the spot delivery and may backdate the new contract to the delivery date without violating California's Automobile Sales Finance Act so long as the rewritten contract discloses an APR accurately or within Truth in Lending… Read More

A home loan borrower lacks standing to challenge a post-closing transfer of his loan into a securitized trust.  Read More

An escrow company owes no duty of care to a person who is neither party to the escrow nor a third party beneficiary.  Read More

The standard Law Printing car contract, which requires the buyer to proceed to a second arbitration before a three-arbitrator panel if the first arbitration before a single arbitrator results in an award exceeding $100,000, is enforceable.  Read More

A defendant may tender the amount it estimates the plaintiff is entitled to under the Automobile Sales Finance Act without admitting liability, and may recover the tendered sum plus costs and attorney fees if the plaintiff recovers less at trial.  Read More

Enforcement of a security interest is not collection of a debt under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, so a deed of trust trustee does not act as a debt collector, subject to that Act, in taking steps to nonjudicially foreclose the deed of trust.  Read More

A car dealer selling a “certified” used car must provide the buyer, before the sale, with an inspection report that lists each part that was inspected and states how the part performed on inspection; failure to provide the report violates the Consumers Legal Remedies Act and the Unfair Competition Law.  Read More

Plaintiff reasonably rejected earlier settlement offers requiring general releases and nondisclosure agreements and so was properly awarded her attorney fees under the Song-Beverly Warranty Act after agreeing to a settlement lacking those provisions.  Read More

Nothing in the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights requires a foreclosing party to prove, prior to foreclosure, that it has the right to foreclose; rather, the statute allows pre-foreclosure injunction actions only for violation of certain specified HBOR sections, which are enumerated in sections 2924.12 and 2924.19 of the Civil Code.  Read More

Uninsured, self-payor patient who paid part of hospital bill and remained liable for the rest had standing to bring, and adequately alleged Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the Unfair Competition Law claims against a hospital for charging him allegedly unconscionable prices for his emergency room treatment.  Read More

Since guarantor structured a real-estate secured loan to an affiliate for its own business reasons and guaranteed only 5% of the loan amount, there was no substantial evidence that guarantor was the principal debtor or that the transaction was a sham to avoid the anti-deficiency laws.  Read More

An order denying an interim award of attorney’s fees under the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights after the borrower/plaintiff was successful in obtaining issuance of a preliminary injunction to prevent foreclosure, is interlocutory and therefore non-appealable.  Read More

In compliance with the Rees-Levering Act, a car purchase agreement properly disclosed the buyer’s $3,000 as a down payment, rather than as a deferred down payment, even though the payment was by post-dated checks that the dealer orally agreed not to deposit for several days.  Read More