Plaintiff tried to refinance her Wells Fargo home loan with another lender but that effort was thwarted by a fraudulent third party's lien on the property. Plaintiff contends that Wells Fargo should have helped her remove the fraudulent lien, but instead it started foreclosure proceedings on her loan. She filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to avoid the foreclosure and listed… Read More
Unless Congress clearly states otherwise, it is presumed not to have waived sovereign immunity. This clear statement rule requires either an express statement that Congress is stripping away sovereign immunity or a statute that creates a cause of action and explicitly authorizes suit against a government entity on that cause of action. The FCRA waives sovereign immunity by the latter… Read More
Following Mejia v. DACM, Inc. (2020) 54 Cal.App.5th 691 and Maldonado v. Fast Auto Loans (2021) 60 Cal.App.5th 710 and rejecting Hodges v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC (9th Cir. 2021) 21 F.4th 535, this decision holds that a suit alleging UCL and CLRA claims and seeking an injunction against allegedly false advertising which would benefit both existing and future customers… Read More
Following Komarova v. National Credit Acceptance, Inc. (2009) 175 Cal.App.4th 324, this decision holds that the absolute litigation privilege generally does not apply to Rosenthal FDCPA claims, even to claims that the defendant debt collector manufactured false evidence to support its debt collection lawsuits. Read More
Plaintiffs claimed that defendant improperly charged them use tax on its lease-end vehicle turn-in fee. This decision holds that the suit was properly dismissed because plaintiffs did not first submit their claims to respondent California Department of Tax and Fee Administration and obtain its definitive ruling on the taxability question. Plaintiffs' claims were barred by their failure to exhaust administrative… Read More
California recognizes a form of the filed rate doctrine for rates or prices approved by state or municipal regulatory agencies, but the state doctrine is more limited and not as restrictive as its federal counterpart. The California filed rate doctrine did not bar plaintiff's class action insofar as it sought injunctive relief (against false advertising) and punitive damages under the… Read More
Yee owned a home in LA; Hon owned one in San Francisco. They were romantically involved and were business partners in a company that ordered $141,000 of goods from Panrox, giving Panrox deeds of trust on both houses. The business didn't pay Panrox which commenced an action to collect the debt. Court records reflected it was settled in 1998, and… Read More
The Rooker-Feldman doctrine did not apply to bar this FDCPA claim against the debt collection attorneys who had filed a memorandum of costs after winning judgment in a debt collection suit. The state court judgment was entered before the cost memo and did not rule on its propriety. Hence, the federal court was not being asked to review any state… Read More
Plaintiff entered into a license agreement allowing defendant to use part of plaintiff's property to make films. The license agreement stated expressly that it was not a lease and landlord-tenant laws did not apply. This decision holds that the advantage of a fast unlawful detainer proceeding is a private right that a landlord can waive and that plaintiff did by… Read More
Before a nonjudicial foreclosure sale, the borrower/owner filed a worngful foreclosure suit against the deed of trust beneficiary and recorded a lis pendens. This case holds that the purchaser at the nonjudicial foreclosure sale who thereafter brought an unlawful detainer action against the borrower/owner was wrongly awarded judgment because it did not prove it duly perfected title given the lis… Read More
Disagreeing with Torres v. Adventist Health System/West (2022) 77 Cal.App.5th 500 and Naranjo v. Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, Inc. (2023) 90 Cal.App.5th 1193, this decision holds that a plaintiff cannot state an actionable UCL or CLRA claim based on emergency room management fees charged by hospitals if the hospital complies with state law in posting its fee schedule on… Read More
Borrowers lacked standing to challenge the assignment of their deed of trust from the prior beneficiary to La Salle Bank as Trustee for WaMu 2006-AR19 when the correct name of the assignee was La Salle Bank as Trustee for WaMu Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates Series 2006-AR19 Trust. Whether an abbreviation of the full name or a misnomer, the incorrect designation of… Read More
A debt falls within the scope of the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act even if the consumer being dunned does not actually owe the debt and did not enter into the consumer credit transaction that the debt collector is attempting to collect. Under Civ. Code, § 1788.2(f), a consumer debt is money due or owing, or alleged to be… Read More
Here, a lender sued on a HELOC loan which provided for monthly payments, gave the lender the discretion to accelerate the loan on default, and provided for any remaining balance to fall due on a specified date. This decision holds that the HELOC called for separate, divisible performances by the borrower--namely, the monthly payments. So that the lender could sue… Read More
This decision holds that separate acts in the course of a collection action may constitute independent violations of the FDCPA and that the FDCPA's one-year limitations period runs separately from each of those violations. To constitute a separate violation, the litigation conduct must be the last opportunity for the debt collector to comply with the FDCPA and must occur on… Read More
The Rosenthal FDCPA (Civ. Code 1788.15(a)) forbids collecting consumer debt by judicial proceedings when the collector knows that service of process, if necessary to establish personal jurisdiction, was not properly effected. This decision holds that the absolute litigation privilege does not apply to immunize the debt collector from liability under the cited section, which is more specific that Civ. Code… Read More
This decision holds that usury savings clauses are unenforceable as against public policy except when the loan agreement would otherwise violate usury restrictions only due to some unanticipated post-agreement event. A usury savings clause is a provision stating that if the loan agreement would otherwise require payment of usurious interest, it is to be construed to charge only the maximum… Read More
A successor owner of the property is entitled to reinstate a defaulted deed of trust under Civ. Code 2924c even if the successor owner is not a party to the defaulted loan and deed of trust and does not assume any obligation under that loan and deed of trust. Here, plaintiff bought the property at a foreclosure sale held by… Read More
Under Civ. Code 1943, an agreement to rent or lease real property is presumed to be month-to-month unless stated otherwise in writing, except that for real property used for agricultural or grazing purposes, the presumed term is year-to-year unless otherwise expressed in the rental agreement or lease. Here, assuming arguendo that a cannabis grower (of plants in pots set on… Read More
Reversing an Anti-SLAPP order striking plaintiff's complaint, this decision holds that Civ. Code 1788.17 incorporates into the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the strict liability standard of 15 USC 1692(e) for false statements made in collecting a debt or regarding the legal status of the debt. Thus, the debt collector may be held liable under the Rosenthal Act for… Read More
