A new owner that succeeds to rights under an existing lease must disclose information about itself within 15 days of succeeding to the prior owner and may not serve a three-day notice to quit based on rent that fell due during any period of noncompliance by the successor owner with that requirement, but this rule does not apply to a… Read More
Plaintiff stated a viable claim for unjust enrichment after it contracted with a property owner to appeal property tax assessments in return for 30% of any resulting refund, but the property was foreclosed upon by defendant before the tax refund came through. Read More
Plaintiff borrowers declaration that he did not recall receiving thirty or more telephone calls with servicer prior to recordation of a notice of default on his mortgage loan did not suffice to create a triable issue of fact as to whether those contacts had taken place since he did not deny that they happened. Read More
A fee-shifting provision in the standard-form residential deed of trust is enforceable against the borrower, but only insofar as the fees are added to the loan principal secured by the deed of trust. Read More
Plaintiff homeowner stated a viable wrongful foreclosure claim against mortgage loan servicer who told plaintiff that it would not accept plaintiff's offer to reinstate the loan, even though the offer was made more than 5 business days before the trustee's sale. Read More
Section 9 of the standard-form deed of trust, which allows the lender to take steps to preserve its interest in the property (including defending litigation) and charge the cost of doing so to the borrower, is in the nature of an indemnity provision under which the lender could add its litigation expenses to the principal debt secured by the deed… Read More
There is no private right of action for a violation of Bus. & Prof. Code 9884.9, which requires car repair facilities to provide the customer a written estimate and obtain written customer approval before beginning repairs on a car. Read More
The filed-rate doctrine, as codified in Ins. Code 12414.26, barred plaintiff’s claim that a title insurer improperly charged additional document preparation and delivery service fees. Read More
While a title isn't normally supposed to be an issue in an unlawful detainer action, under the Ellis Act the trial court should have considered relevant evidence of the landlord's phony sale of another unit in considering the landlord's intent to withdraw the building from the rental market (or not). Read More
Washington's unlawful detainer statute violates due process insofar as it permits summary issuance of a writ of restitution without hearing if the landlord claims non-payment of rent and the tenant fails to file a timely, sworn written statement in dispute. Read More
A tenant was entitled to judgment in this unlawful detainer action because the landlord’s 3-day notice to quit included in the sum demanded to cure the rent default a $50 late fee and the landlord failed to prove at trial the fee was not an illegal penalty. Read More
A homeowner should have been allowed to amend his complaint to allege that the party foreclosing on his house lacked any interest in his loan since that the prior owner of the loan had already assigned it to someone else before executing the assignment to the foreclosing party. Read More
In a class action under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, statutory damages are limited to the lesser of $500,000 or 1% of the defendant's net worth, and the net worth calculation is the plaintiff’s burden to prove just as all the other elements are. Read More
The Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act is not unconstitutionally vague merely because some types of consumer reports fall within its scope as well as within the scope of the Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act, and an employer seeking any information about a consumer other than creditworthiness can easily comply with both statutes simply by complying with the stricter requirements of… Read More
The catch-all federal four-year statute of limitations applies to violations of the foreclosure prohibitions in the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Read More
The Federal Trade Commission’s Holder Rule limits a creditor’s liability for claims by restricting the debtor’s total recovery (including attorney fees) to the amount paid by the debtor under the assigned contract. Read More
In a junk fax case brought under the TCPA, the recipient's "prior express invitation or permission," like consent in an unsolicited telephone call case, is an affirmative defense with respect to which the court, when weighing class certification, considers only the defenses the defendant has actually advanced and for which it has presented evidence. Read More
A job applicant who would not have been hired even if inaccuracies in his credit report were corrected lacked Article III standing to bring a claim against the employer for failure to give him pre-adverse action notice as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Read More
A collection attorney engages in debt collection for purposes of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when he pursues judicial foreclosure because that proceeding allows for the collection of a deficiency judgment—unlike a nonjudicial foreclosure, the sole goal of which is to retake property given as security. Read More
