In a much-anticipated decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Monday in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, No. 13-1339, 2016 WL 2842447 (May 16, 2016), that a consumer cannot bring a lawsuit in federal court based only on a "bare procedural violation" of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § § 1681-1681y ("FCRA"), vacating the Ninth Circuit's earlier decision for failing to fully consider whether the plaintiff had adequately alleged an "injury in fact." See 2016 WL 2842447, at 2-3. Yet, while defendants had been arguing for months in district courts that the Supreme Court's ...
Florida's Third District Court of Appeal retreated from one of its most unpopular opinions this morning. The Third DCA surprised many with its original ruling in Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas v. Beauvais ¸ 3D14-575 when it split with the Fourth District Court of Appeal and held that if a prior foreclosure is dismissed without prejudice, the statute of limitations continues to run from the date of the first foreclosure filing. In the year that followed, the Third DCA's Beauvais opinion was universally panned by the First, Fourth, and Fifth District Courts of Appeal and numerous ...
The brief era of confusion amongst Florida trial judges regarding the standard for judging compliance with conditions precedent in residential mortgage foreclosures is hopefully coming to a close. Despite a rash of written opinions from Florida trial judges adopting a strict compliance standard for contractual conditions precedent, Florida's Fifth District Court of Appeal joined the Second and the Third District Court of Appeal in adopting a substantial compliance standard in Bank of New York Mellon, etc. v. Donna D. Johnson, 5D14-3626 (Fla. 5th DCA Jan. 29, 2016). The opinion ...
In the case of Sill v. JPMorgan Chase Bank National Association, Michael Sill appealed a final judgment of foreclosure entered in favor of JPMorgan Chase Bank ("Chase"), in which he asserted three issues. 4D14-1014, 2016 WL 67256 (Fla. 4th DCA Jan. 6, 2016). Of note, is Mr. Sill's third contention arguing that Chase was required to send a new notice of default after it voluntarily dismissed the first suit and before it filed the second suit. The Fourth DCA affirmed on all issues, but it wrote an opinion to address the sole issue of whether a new notice of default was required to be sent by ...
In Sas v. Federal National Mortgage Ass'n., No. 2D14-1003, 2015 WL 3609508 (Fla. 2d DCA June 10, 2015) the appellate court was faced with the issue of whether there was a requirement that the records custodian of the current loan servicer have personal knowledge of the manner in which the prior loan servicer maintained and created its business records in order for the records to be introduced into evidence under section 90.803(6), Fla. Stat. During the hearing on damages before the trial court, the current loan servicer, Seterus, had its records custodian testify that: he was familiar ...
Following the Eleventh Circuit's decision last year in Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, the filing of a proof of claim on a time-barred debt in a bankruptcy case pending in the Eleventh Circuit's jurisdiction violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § § 1692-1692p ("FDCPA"). But as the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama recently made clear in Gurganus v. Recovery Management Systems Corp. (In re Gurganus), No. 7:14-ap-70054-BGC, 2015 WL 65089 (Bankr. N.D. Ala. Jan. 5, 2015), before debtors start hauling creditors into court for something ...
Florida's Third District Court of Appeal issued an opinion[1] today that provides further guidance in determining the date of accrual of a cause of action in a subsequent mortgage foreclosure action and addresses the nature of contractual conditions precedent to acceleration of debt. In the case of Richard Hubert Snow, et al. vs. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as trustee, 3D14-1547, the court affirmed the final judgment of foreclosure and rejected appellants' argument that the action was barred by the statute of limitations. Burr & Forman LLP was appellate counsel for the appellee, Wells ...
Judge Donald Middlebrooks recently dismissed a plaintiff's "permissible purpose" claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA") where the alleged facts showed that the defendant/creditor was attempting to collect a debt and had a good faith belief that the account belonged to the plaintiff. In Little v. Asset Acceptance, Case No. 9:12-cv-81116 (S.D. Fla.), Carole Little filed suit against Asset Acceptance, LLC, claiming that Asset had no permission to access her credit report, that she had never applied to Asset for credit, and that she does not maintain a credit account with ...