The sue-and-be-sued provision in Fannie Mae's statutory charter does not confer federal jurisdiction over suits against Fannie Mae or allow it to remove those suits to federal court absent some other basis for federal jurisdiction. Read More
An attorney engaged in debt collection and violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by sending a homeowner a letter demanding payment of delinquent homeowners association dues and threatening to file a lien on the homeowner’s property unless the dues were paid within 25 days, thus overshadowing the FDCPA-required notice that the homeowner had 30 days to demand validation of… Read More
When a dealer spot delivers a car but later recalls the buyer to rewrite the deal, the dealer may charge interest from the date of the spot delivery and may backdate the new contract to the delivery date without violating California's Automobile Sales Finance Act so long as the rewritten contract discloses an APR accurately or within Truth in Lending… Read More
A home loan borrower lacks standing to challenge a post-closing transfer of his loan into a securitized trust. Read More
An escrow company owes no duty of care to a person who is neither party to the escrow nor a third party beneficiary. Read More
The standard Law Printing car contract, which requires the buyer to proceed to a second arbitration before a three-arbitrator panel if the first arbitration before a single arbitrator results in an award exceeding $100,000, is enforceable. Read More
A defendant may tender the amount it estimates the plaintiff is entitled to under the Automobile Sales Finance Act without admitting liability, and may recover the tendered sum plus costs and attorney fees if the plaintiff recovers less at trial. Read More
Enforcement of a security interest is not collection of a debt under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, so a deed of trust trustee does not act as a debt collector, subject to that Act, in taking steps to nonjudicially foreclose the deed of trust. Read More
A car dealer selling a “certified” used car must provide the buyer, before the sale, with an inspection report that lists each part that was inspected and states how the part performed on inspection; failure to provide the report violates the Consumers Legal Remedies Act and the Unfair Competition Law. Read More
Plaintiff reasonably rejected earlier settlement offers requiring general releases and nondisclosure agreements and so was properly awarded her attorney fees under the Song-Beverly Warranty Act after agreeing to a settlement lacking those provisions. Read More
Nothing in the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights requires a foreclosing party to prove, prior to foreclosure, that it has the right to foreclose; rather, the statute allows pre-foreclosure injunction actions only for violation of certain specified HBOR sections, which are enumerated in sections 2924.12 and 2924.19 of the Civil Code. Read More
Uninsured, self-payor patient who paid part of hospital bill and remained liable for the rest had standing to bring, and adequately alleged Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the Unfair Competition Law claims against a hospital for charging him allegedly unconscionable prices for his emergency room treatment. Read More
Since guarantor structured a real-estate secured loan to an affiliate for its own business reasons and guaranteed only 5% of the loan amount, there was no substantial evidence that guarantor was the principal debtor or that the transaction was a sham to avoid the anti-deficiency laws. Read More
An order denying an interim award of attorney’s fees under the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights after the borrower/plaintiff was successful in obtaining issuance of a preliminary injunction to prevent foreclosure, is interlocutory and therefore non-appealable. Read More
In compliance with the Rees-Levering Act, a car purchase agreement properly disclosed the buyer’s $3,000 as a down payment, rather than as a deferred down payment, even though the payment was by post-dated checks that the dealer orally agreed not to deposit for several days. Read More
Even though it did not expressly so state, given the parties’ prior settlement negotiations, a collection attorney's voicemail message to debtor sufficiently disclosed even to the least sophisticated debtor that the message was from a debt collector. Read More
Now-defunct Nevada statute violated due process by granting homeowners’ associations priority over mortgage lenders and other senior lienholders and allowing them foreclose liens for unpaid dues without requiring notice to a senior lienholder unless it affirmatively requested notice. Read More
A homeowners association’s post-foreclosure quiet title action stated a viable claim against the former owner who might challenge the foreclosure; hence, the former owner was not fraudulently joined and the federal courts lacked diversity jurisdiction. Read More
A borrower lacks standing to sue alleging his loan was transferred to a securitized trust after its closing date because a late transfer is voidable, not void. Read More
When a home loan borrower defends a lender’s suit, based on a demand for rescission under the Truth in Lending Act, the lender’s lien is not automatically invalidated; instead, the court must decide whether correct TILA disclosures were given and whether the borrower should be required to tender back the borrowed sums before the lien is invalidated. Read More
