Among issues that mortgage-related firms are grappling with in court are consumer bankruptcy, advertising and employment. An appraiser filed a lawsuit against a mortgage lender and an appraisal management company because she was blacklisted.
After Dolores L. Chia was discharged from bankruptcy, her refinance loan was foreclosed on by Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. She appealed a district court order denying her motion to amend her complaint and finding she lacked standing to bring claims against Wells Fargo following her discharge.
“We have reviewed the record and find no reversible error,” the court wrote in a March 16 opinion published by Leagle. “Accordingly, although we grant Chia’s motion for leave to file an amended reply brief, we affirm for the reasons stated by the district court.”
Advantage Credit Repair LLC and owner Mark D. Solomon agreed to a $226,794 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, a March 4 announcement indicated. Advantage allegedly advertised, “We would never charge a large fee up front.” But it charged individuals $495 and couples $665 — of which more than $200 was collected up-front in violation of the Credit Repair Organizations Act.
The $226,794 judgment will be suspended once a $20,000 payment is made. However, the full judgment will become due immediately if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.
The judgment bans the “defendants from collecting any payments from consumers who purchased their services before Oct. 23, 2008, when the court halted their business practices and froze their assets,” the FTC said. “The order further bars them from disclosing or benefiting from customer information, and failing to properly dispose of customer information.”
The Court of Appeals of Minnesota affirmed the decision of an unemployment-law judge that Ann. M. Shepard was ineligible for unemployment compensation because she quit her job with CMG Mortgage Inc. without a good reason caused by the employer, according to the court opinion published by Leagle. Shepard worked as an account executive for CMG from Oct. 22, 2007, to April 29, 2008.
Shepard reportedly closed no business and was warned by her branch manager on March 11, 2008, that she would be discharged if she didn’t start closing loans. She was unable to close two loans subsequently originated at a trade show, and sent an e-mail of resignation to her supervisor on April 28, 2008.
A motion to dismiss eAppraiseIT LLC as a defendant from a lawsuit filed against National City Mortgage Services has been denied by a federal judge, a copy of the decision published by Leagle stated. The case was filed by appraiser Nancy K. Horton and is being tried in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.
Horton alleges that National City improperly placed her on an internal black list in October 2005 because of problems uncovered by a review appraiser. As an appraisal management company, eAppraiseIT stopped accepting work from Horton as a result of National City’s blacklisting. She says she was the only Illinois appraiser on National City’s blacklist that eAppraiseIT published information about.
The plaintiff claims tortious interference with prospective economic advantage and defamation.
Federal Trade Commission v. Advantage Credit Repair LLC and Mark D. Solomon.
Civil Action No. 1:08-CV-05994, FTC File No. 082 3223, Oct. 20, 2008 (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division).
Nancy K. Horton, Plaintiff, v. National City Mortgage Services, n/k/a National City DND Inc., National City Mortgage Co., and eAppraiseIT LLC, d/b/a Network Appraisal Services, Defendants.
Case No. 09-1391 (U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois).
Ann Shepard, Relator, v. CMG Mortgage Inc., Respondent, Department of Employment and Economic Development, Respondent.
Case No. A09-938 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota).
