Obligations reduced to a promissory note are often accompanied by a written guaranty. The law treats the guaranty as an independent obligation. A case recently decided by California’s First District Court of Appeal —...more
The scenario is fairly common. A bank makes a loan to a business. The owners of the business guarantee the loan. The business defaults. The owners blame each other for the failure of the business. When the bank demands...more
On September 6, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated and remanded a district court’s decision rejecting borrower defendants’ usury defense on grounds of waiver and collateral estoppel. The lender,...more
The Federal Reserve's most recent Financial Stability Report addressed what many industry watchers had been convinced of for some time: the commercial real estate sector is in a precarious state. The Federal Reserve Bank...more
Sister blog The LLC Jungle recently posted about an opinion from California’s Sixth District Court of Appeal — Orozco v. WPV San Jose, LLC — describing the legal difference between an LLC tenant, and the LLC’s owner who...more
Late last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held in Regions Bank v. Legal Outsource PA, No. 17-11736, 2019 WL 4051703 (11th Cir. Aug 28, 2019), that a loan guarantor does not qualify as an “applicant”...more
In reviewing notable guaranty cases from 2017 while preparing this year’s updates and edits for CEB’s top-notch treatise, California Mortgages, Deeds of Trust, and Foreclosure Litigation, we came across an opinion that...more
In Cedar-Fieldstone Marketplace, LP v. T.S. Fitness, Inc., the Massachusetts Appeals Court considered whether a release of a landlord’s claims against a tenant for unpaid rent precluded the landlord from bringing a collection...more
One might expect that a sheriff’s sale of stock pursuant to a writ of execution could not result in a viable claim for conversion by a judgment debtor. A California Court of Appeal, however, has ruled that it could....more
Is a personal guaranty a separate agreement from the underlying contract it guarantees? The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently considered this issue in Friday Investments, LLC v. Bally Total Fitness of the...more
On April 17, 2017, the Supreme Court of Georgia found that defendant guarantors had waived the statutory protections under the Georgia foreclosure confirmation statute, and the lender could pursue a deficiency judgment...more
On August 3, 2016, the South Carolina Court of Appeals released First South Bank v. Rosenberg, Op. No. 5437 (S.C.Ct.App. filed August, 3, 2016) (Shearouse Adv.Sh. No. 31 at 75). In First Bank, the Court of Appeals considered...more
In a case decided at the end of August, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals had the opportunity to address when the statute of limitations expires with respect to the enforcement of a guaranty. In JB Mortgage Co., LLC v. Ring...more
The Court of Appeals issued a number of decisions today, while snow and ice ghosted the City of Raleigh. The Court addressed trespass to land, the availability of the "offset" defense to commercial loan guarantors. Let's...more
A general waiver by a guarantor of “all defenses” does not actually waive “all defenses.” California Bank & Trust v. Del Ponti, — Cal.Rptr.3d —, 2014 WL 6908141 (Cal.App. 4 Dist.). That was the holding in a recent opinion...more
The application of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to spousal guaranties is a developing area of law, resulting in a number of recent appellate opinions. One opinion from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, Hawkins...more
On August 20, 2014, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued an opinion giving great weight to properly-drafted forbearance agreements in a commercial loan and guaranty context. RL REGI N.C., LLC v. Lighthouse Cove, LLC, No....more
After argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Hawkins v. Community Bank of Raymore, Case No. 13-3065, Lathrop & Gage attorneys Tom Stahl, Greer Lang and Justin Nichols obtained a ruling that the Equal...more
The Court of Appeals of Georgia further clarified Georgia's treatment of deficiency judgment suits against guarantors in instances where lenders cannot obtain foreclosure confirmations of secured property. Community &...more
By most accounts, a decision from the Georgia Court of Appeals last September represents a sea change in the law governing judicial confirmation of foreclosure sales and post-foreclosure deficiency claims. Indeed, the Court's...more