Under the FCRA, a furnisher of credit information must make a reasonable investigation if the consumer about whom it furnishes information to a credit reporting bureau properly protests the inaccuracy of the furnisher's information. Furnishers, unlike credit reporting agencies, may be required to investigate the legal as well as factual bases of the information it furnishes. Here, CitiMortgage continued to… Read More
When a nonexempt lender charges more interest than is allowed under Cal. Const. art. XV, sec. 1, the interest provisions of the loan agreement are unenforceable. The principal amount of the loan is deemed due on the maturity date of the loan, and all payments on the loan before then are credited against principal. However, if the loan is not… Read More
This decision reverses a summary judgment for defendant, finding a triable issue of fact as to whether defendant willfully violated the FCRA's requirement that an employer provide a job applicant a stand alone disclosure of its potential use of credit reports for employment screening. (15 USC 1681b(b)(2)(A).) Wilful for this purpose includes reckless conduct that increases the risk of violation… Read More
Particularly as amended in 2019, Civ. Code 2923.7 requires a loan servicer to appoint a SPOC for each borrower who seeks a foreclosure alternative. The borrower need not specifically request a SPOC in order to trigger the statute. Interpreting Civ. Code 2924.12, the decision holds that for post-foreclosure damages purposes, the court must analyze harm in three steps. First, did… Read More
In this case, plaintiff sued defendant under the CLRA for not disclosing the amount of its potential or likely emergency room evaluation and management services fee. The court concluded that the complaint adequately alleged that defendant owed a duty to disclose the charge as that information was within its sole knowledge and not readily available to its patients. The complaint… Read More
The district attorneys of several counties served Alorica with an investigative subpoena to produce records regarding it debt collection practices and in particular with respect to its collections for a national bank. Held, the subpoena was properly enforced. That Alorica claims not to be a debt collector within the meaning of the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is no… Read More
Under the CLRA (Civ. Code 1792(b), no "action for damages" may be brought against a defendant that offers appropriate correction within 30 days of receiving the plaintiff's notice of violation of the statute. This decision holds that "action for damages" includes--and the subsection therefore bars--any claim for compensatory damages or for restitution under the CLRA. The decision also holds that… Read More
The Supreme Court holds that lenders and loan servicers do not owe borrowers a duty of care in handling their loan modification applications. Lender and borrower are in privity of contract, and the economic loss rule prevents recovery for purely economic loss based on negligence between contracting parties. The Biakanja factors apply only to parties not in privity of contract. … Read More
The FCRA (15 U.S.C. 1681g does not require the CRA to disclose to a consumer on request information that the CRA collects on a consumer but would not place in a consumer credit report given to an actual or potential creditor, nor soft credit inquiries that, likewise are not reported in credit reports, nor information derived from the consumer's file… Read More
Under CCP 1174.3, an occupant of a premises that is not an invitee, licensee, guest, or trespasser may file a claim of right to possession of the premises to forestall eviction from the premises under an unlawful detainer judgment rendered in a case to which the occupant was not made a party. To be valid the claim must show that… Read More
On remand after a prior appeal decided in plaintiff's favor, the district court granted defendant summary judgment finding that defendant was not negligent or willful in including in its credit report mention of plaintiff's criminal charge that was filed more than 7 years before the credit report but was dismissed less than 7 years before the report. This decision affirms… Read More
A jury found Ford liable to a purchaser for fraud and a CLRA violation as well as a violation of the Song-Beverly Act for selling plaintiff a Ford pickup with a Navistar engine when Ford knew the Navistar engine created unsolvable problems when put in a Ford truck. This decision holds that substantial evidence supported the jury's compensatory damage award… Read More
So long as the landlord does not contract with them and does not demand or accept rent from them, the landlord need not let subtenants cure the tenant's rent default. Accordingly, the landlord's 3-day notice to quit served on the subtenants was proper though it did not offer them the alternative of curing the tenant's rent default. Also, under San… Read More
Following Nolte v. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (2015) 236 Cal.App.4th 1401, this decision holds that it is not an unfair or unlawful business practice for a hospital not to affirmatively disclose, prior to treatment, that it will charge an emergency room charge to patients using the emergency room. Extensive state and federal statutes and regulations require specific sorts of disclosures of… Read More
CCP 1161.3 provides that a landlord may not terminate a tenancy for (among other things) domestic violence committed against the tenant or a member of the tenant's household so long as the domestic violence is documented by, among other alternatives, a police report. Over a dissent, this opinion holds that the statute provides a defense to an unlawful detainer action… Read More
Before and during his decade-long divorce proceedings, Piterman made monthly payments on two promissory notes to his friend Korchemny, who then with Piterman's encouragement and aid sued Piterman, his former wife and her trust to collect on the notes. This opinion affirms a judgment against Korchemny on the complaint. The first promissory note charged interest in excess of 10% and… Read More
The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiff's motion for an attorney fee award on the ground that neither party had prevailed in the action. Plaintiff tenant sued his landlord, asked the jury to award him $200,000 but recovered a jury verdict of only $6,450. In view of plaintiff's recovery of such a small percentage of the… Read More
The res judicata/collateral estoppel effect of a post-foreclosure unlawful detainer judgment extends only to proper conduct of the trustee's sale, not to claims of earlier wrongs committed by the lender that purportedly led eventually to the foreclosure. Thus, here, the unlawful detainer judgment against the borrowers did not preclude them from later suing on a claim that the lender had… Read More
A party cannot acquire good title by adverse possession against the beneficiary of a deed of trust that was recorded on the property before the alleged adverse possession began. This is for third reasons. First, the beneficiary has no right to possession of the property until after foreclosure on the deed of trust. Since the beneficiary cannot oust the alleged… Read More
The tenant served his summary judgment motion one day late in this UD action, six days before the hearing rather than the required seven for service by express mail. Nevertheless, the the judgment is affirmed. Plaintiff filed an opposition. Though complaining about the short service, it did not claim any prejudice. Also, there was no record of oral proceedings at… Read More
