On February 13, 2018, the Florida Supreme Court accepted jurisdiction in an appeal emanating from a hot button issue in contested foreclosures – can the borrower in a foreclosure secure an award of contractual attorney’s fees...more
Last week, Florida’s Fifth DCA and Second DCA issued two seminal opinions; Klebanoff v. Bank of N.Y. Mellon, and Huntington National Bank v. Watters, which clarify the cloud of uncertainty that had engulfed the statute of...more
The Florida Supreme Court today affirmed Bartram v. U.S. Bank National Association in a virtually unanimous decision. The decision resolves a long standing controversy regarding the effect (if any) of a prior unsuccessful...more
Learning the interplay between state rules of judicial procedure and federal bankruptcy law can be a daunting undertaking, but the pitfalls of failing to do so can be severe. A recent example of the importance of being...more
Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal retreated from one of its most unpopular opinions this morning. The Third DCA surprised many with its original ruling in Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas v. Beauvais¸ 3D14-575 when...more
In McFarland v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 14-2126 (4th Cir. Jan. 15, 2016), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals examined the argument that a loan was substantively unconscionable because it vastly exceeded the worth of the...more
In Cottrell as Trustee v. Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., 41 Fla. L. Weekly D141f, 2D14-5885 (Fla. 2d DCA Jan. 8, 2016), Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal examined the applicability of Rule 1.540(b) to notices...more
In Stuart-Findlay v. Bank of America, N.A., 2010CA014370, 41 Fla. L. Weekly D207a (Fla. 4th DCA 2014), Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal held that a clerk’s default entered in error should have been set aside,...more
In Helton v. Bank of America, 5D14-2632 (Fla. 5th DCA Jan. 22, 2016), Florida’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal echoed its opinion in Webster v. Chase Home Finance, LLC, 155 So. 3d 1219, 1220 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015) that oral...more
In OneWest Bank, FSB v. Gino Alessio, et al., 4D14-1444 (Fla. 4th DCA Jan. 6, 2014), the Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed a trial judge’s order dismissing a foreclosure after the defendant improperly used a motion in...more
In Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company v. Dennis M. Conley, 4D14-2430 (Fla. 4th DCA Jan. 6, 2016), Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal clarified the methods by which a foreclosure plaintiff can seek to enforce a note...more
In Hicks v. Wells Fargo, 5D14-1748, Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal issued the first appellate opinion to pass on the proper method of pleading a re-filed foreclosure where a prior foreclosure effort was dismissed...more
In Wells Fargo Bank v. Lauri Mailloux, 2D14-5116 (Fla. 2d DCA October 30, 2015), the Second District Court of Appeal held that the inclusion of language purporting to render a notice of voluntary dismissal conditional upon an...more
Standing is one of the top issues in foreclosure case law. So it comes as no surprise that the issue of standing is also a common focal point for discovery disputes in foreclosures. It has become common foreclosure defense...more
10/8/2015
/ Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Borrowers ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Discovery ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreclosure ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Standing
It’s finally here. Over the weekend, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) long awaited and oft delayed integration of the disclosures required by the Federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Real Estate...more
10/6/2015
/ Banking Sector ,
Closing Documents ,
Compliance ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Institutions ,
HUD ,
Loans ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Residential Real Estate Market ,
RESPA ,
TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule (TRID) ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
In Russell v. Nationstar Mortgage, LLC, No. 14-61977-CIV, 2015 WL 5029346, at *5 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 26, 2015), United States District Court Judge Beth Bloom issued litigious borrowers their latest setback in a large scale...more
9/29/2015
/ Attorney's Fees ,
Banking Sector ,
Borrowers ,
Default ,
FCCPA ,
Financial Institutions ,
Inspections ,
Loans ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Mortgages ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Regulation X ,
Request For Information ,
RESPA
Foreclosure defense and bankruptcy often go hand in hand, but sometimes it seems like the left hand doesn’t talk to the right. This has proven especially common with bankruptcy plans that propose to “surrender” real property...more
8/13/2015
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Chapter 13 ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreclosure ,
Lenders ,
Loan Modifications ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Mortgages
On August 5, 2015, PHH Corp. (“PHH”) won a stay of the $109M penalty handed down by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) director Rich Cordray. Cordray’s aggressive legal reasoning and the harsh penalties he imposed,...more
8/10/2015
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Captive Insurance Company ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
HUD ,
Insurance Industry ,
Kickbacks ,
Lenders ,
Mortgage Insurance ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Motion To Stay ,
Penalties ,
Popular ,
Reinsurance ,
RESPA ,
Richard Cordray
Most constitutional challenges to agency action arise as a defense to an enforcement action. However, State National Bank of Big Spring, Texas (the “Bank”) has led a constitutional challenge to the very existence and...more