Commercial Law & Contracts › Business Torts › Residential Real Estate

CEQA Litigation: The Cost Of Doing Business In California

There has been a lot of news lately on the costs of CEQA litigation, as well as the potential for the statute to be used as a tool to stop development, good or bad, or exact concessions or pay-offs. What is CEQA? CEQA, or...more

Mississippi Court Holds D&O Policy Not Triggered By Real Estate Scheme

In its recent decision in State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Anderson, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57837 (S.D. Miss. Apr. 23, 2013), the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi had occasion to consider...more

Bank of America Settles Class Action Brought By Mortgage Investors

Bank of America has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by investors who claimed they were misled by its Countrywide unit into buying risky mortgage securities. Bank of America acquired Countrywide Financial, a...more

TBTF Servicing: Another Issue for Originators to Consider

As widely reported recently, close to 1.2 million borrowers (about 30% of the more than 3.9 million households that faced foreclosure proceedings by the 11 leading financial institutions in 2009 and 2010), had to battle...more

Federal Government Civil Fraud Suit Targets Mortgage Lender And Its President

On April 4, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and HUD officials announced a civil fraud suit alleging FCA and FIRREA claims against a mortgage lender and its president for falsely certifying loans and...more

The Lesser of Two Evils? Court Holds that Statutory Measure of Recovery Under a Mechanic’s Liens Is the Lesser of Reasonable Value...

In Appel v. Superior Court (No. B244590, 3/11/13), California’s Second District Court of Appeal held that the proper measure of a mechanic’s lien claim is the lesser of the reasonable value of the services and materials...more

CFPB announces settlement of four enforcement actions against mortgage insurers

The CFPB announced the settlement of enforcement actions brought in federal district court in Florida against four national mortgage insurers involving allegations that the insurers paid kickbacks to mortgage lenders in...more

New York Obtains Major Lender-Placed Insurance Settlement

On March 21, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced that it obtained a settlement from a major lender-placed insurer to resolve an investigation into the company’s practices. According to the DFS, the...more

Cleveland v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., 2013-Ohio-1035

Journal Entry and Opinion

Dismissal for failure to state a claim, Civ.R. 12 (B)(6), of Cleveland's action for public nuisance and Ohio RICO against financial institutions involved in the creation of mortgage-backed securities using subprime mortgages...more

The Washington Supreme Court Holds That in First-Party Bad Faith Litigation There Is a Presumption of No Attorney-Client Privilege

When an insured sues an insurer for bad faith, how much of the claims file maintained by the insurer is discoverable? In a 5-4 decision, the Washington Supreme Court recently weakened insurers’ ability to protect confidential...more

Investor Files Suit Against Nationstar Over Mortgage Auctions

On March 7, KIRP, LLC sued Texas-based mortgage servicer Nationstar Mortgage LLC in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in connection with Nationstar’s alleged improper conduct in servicing mortgage loans that are...more

Mere Recording Of Deed Does Not Commence Four Year Statute Of Limitations On Fraudulent Conveyance [Florida]

Under fraudulent conveyance law, a creditor of a debtor can reach property of the debtor that the debtor transferred to third parties if the transfer is a fraudulent conveyance. However, Fla.Stats. §726.110(1) provides that...more

Appellate Notes: Week of February 18

In This Issue: - AC34039 - Landmark Investment Group, LLC v. Calco Construction & Development Co. - AC33614 - Dorreman v. Johnson - AC34253 - Klemonski v. University of Connecticut Health Center ...more

Real Estate Sellers: Keep Those Skeletons in Your Closet!

Recently, the Pennsylvania Superior Court held that sellers of residential real estate are under no duty, pursuant to the Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law, 68 Pa.C.S. §7101 et seq. (“RSDL”), to disclose prior to a sale that...more

Mortgage Foreclosure Settlement

We have long been skeptical of most loan “repurchase” or “indemnification” demands made by big banks against the third-party originators (i.e., correspondent lenders) who sold those loans to the big banks many years ago....more

California Appeals Court Reinstates Challenge to Allegedly Deceptive ARMs

On October 11, the California Court of Appeal, Sixth District, reinstated a case in which borrowers claim fraudulent omission and violation of the unfair competition law (UCL) based on lenders’ alleged failure to disclose the...more

DOJ Sues Mortgage Lender Over Alleged Fraudulent Certification of FHA Loans

On October 9, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a civil fraud suit against a mortgage lender alleged to have falsely certified...more

Bond Insurer Syncora Sues JPMorgan, Bear Stearns, and EMC Mortgage

On October 5, Syncora Guarantee Inc. filed suit in New York state court against JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, Bear Stearns & Co., Inc., and EMC Mortgage LLC. Syncora asserts claims of breach of contract, fraudulent inducement, and...more

Guardian Elder Care at Brockway LLC v. WRC Highland View Healthcare: Absent Express Provision to the Contrary, a Buyer's Due...

On May 1, 2012, in a case argued by Saul Ewing attorney John F. Stoviak (with assistance from Braden A. Borger on the Brief), the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas (Jefferson County) held that reliance is not an essential...more

Deutsche Bank Sues GE Subsidiary Over $650 million in RMBS Losses

On June 25, 2012, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, trustee for the Morgan Stanley ABS Capital I Inc. Trust 2006 WMC-2, filed suit against WMC Mortgage, LLC and GE Capital in the District of Connecticut....more

Condo Directors Held Personally Liable For Legal Costs

The Condominium Act (the “Act”) has several provisions (sections 85, 134(5) and 135(3) which place the financial burden of obtaining compliance orders on those responsible for the non-compliance, thus relieving innocent...more

Can formatting and font size in your contracts create liability? You bet.

Can formatting and font size in your contracts create liability? You bet. Believe it or not, the wrong font size and type style in a contract can get you into legal hot water. Here are a few examples from Texas law that...more

Bankruptcy Law: Tousa Update - June 2012

We reported to you in detail about the Tousa Bankruptcy Court decision in November, 2009 which found payments to lenders and the grant of associated liens were avoidable as fraudulent conveyances. The impacted Tousa lenders...more

Construction Oberview: Maryland Court of Appeals Rules that Consumer Protection Act Applies to Condominium Resale Disclosures

In a unanimous opinion filed on April 30, 2012, the Maryland Court of Appeals has established that provisions of the Maryland Consumer Protection Act apply to the information contained in a condominium resale certificate. The...more

Bayernische Landesbank Files $810 Million RMBS Suit Against Deutsche Bank

On April 19, 2012, Bayerische Landesbank (“Bayern”), a German bank, filed an $810 million suit against Deutsche Bank and certain of its affiliates in New York County Supreme Court. Bayern alleges Deutsche Bank fraudulently...more