Cassese v. Washington Mutual, Inc.

255 F.R.D. 89, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106631, 2008 WL 5501037
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedDecember 29, 2008
DocketNo. 05 CV 2724(ADS)(ARL)
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 255 F.R.D. 89 (Cassese v. Washington Mutual, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cassese v. Washington Mutual, Inc., 255 F.R.D. 89, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106631, 2008 WL 5501037 (E.D.N.Y. 2008).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

SPATT, District Judge.

This case arises out of claims by Denise Cassese, George Scott Rush, Richard Melic-har, and Richard Schroer, individually and on behalf of all other similarly situated individuals (collectively, the “plaintiffs”), that Washington Mutual, Inc., Washington Mutual Bank, formerly known as Washington Mutual Bank, FA (‘WMB”), Washington Mutual Bank, FSB, and Washington Mutual Home Loans, Inc. (collectively, the “defendants”) imposed and collected unlawful fees, prepayment penalties, and finance charges from them in connection with their mortgage loans. The defendants state that the fees charged were for additional services, such as providing borrowers with payoff statements, either through the mail or via facsimile.

I. BACKGROUND

WMB is a federally chartered savings association, engaged in the practice of mort[93]*93gage banking, home loan lending, and loan servicing, in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and other states. Each plaintiff is an individual who entered into loan agreements originated and/or serviced by WMB. The plaintiffs allege that they entered into standard form mortgage agreements and notes that stated that they could make full or partial prepayments of the principal amount of their loans at any time without penalty.

Paragraph 5 of the Cassese Note, entitled “Borrower’s Right to Prepay,” states the following: “I have the right to make payments of principal at any time before they are due. A payment of principal only is known as a ‘prepayment.’... I may make a full prepayment or partial prepayments without paying any prepayment charge.” The same language appears at paragraph 4 of the Rush note, under the title “Borrower’s Right to Prepay.” The plaintiffs allege that each of them signed similar “standard” agreements, with the same or similar language with regard to prepayment. Despite such language, the plaintiffs allege that they were improperly charged additional fees in violation of their loan agreements at the time that they sought to prepay their mortgages. Collectively, the Court refers to these fees as the “Disputed Charges.” The plaintiffs paid the Disputed Charges without inquiry or protest.

A. Proposed Representative Plaintiffs

1. Denise Cassese

Denise Cassese entered into a loan agreement with the defendants in August of 1998. Cassese alleges that she received two payoff statements, dated May 14, 2002 and June 7, 2002, which required her to pay a “Fax Fee” of $10; “Recording Fees” of $53; and a $10 fee for “Unpaid Late Charges and/or other fees.”

2. George Scott Rush

George Scott Rush became a mortgagor of the defendants in March of 2000. Rush’s payoff statement dated October 17, 2001, required that he pay a “Payoff Statement Fee” of $60 and a “Recording Fee” of $20.

3. Richard Schroer

On or about April 25, 2002, Richard Schroer obtained a residential loan and was advised that “Washington Mutual” would be responsible for the servicing of his loan. Schroer’s payoff statement, dated September 17, 2003, required him to pay a “Payoff Statement Fee of $60.”

B. Procedural History

Plaintiffs Cassese and Rush commenced this action on June 6, 2005. On September 7, 2007, the Court ruled on defendants’ motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) and motion to strike pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(f) and 8(a). The Court dismissed Counts I, II, III, and IV of the plaintiffs’ second amended complaint, but denied the defendants’ motion to strike certain allegations in the amended complaint.

Count I concerned the plaintiffs’ allegations that the additional fees charged upon prepayment of their mortgage loans violated the federal Truth-in-Lending Act (“TILA”) because the defendants failed to disclose the imposition of such fees at the inception of the loans. The Court found that the Disputed Charges paid by the named plaintiffs fell within TILA’s $100 tolerance for accuracy. This tolerance provides that, in connection with certain types of credit transactions, “the disclosure of the finance charge and other disclosures affected by any finance charge— (1) shall be treated as being accurate for purposes of this subchapter if the amount disclosed as the finance charge — (A) does not vary from the actual finance charge by more than $100.” 15 U.S.C. § 1605(f).

Further, the Court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss Count II of the plaintiffs’ complaint, which alleged that the Disputed Charges violated the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RES-PA”), 12 U.S.C. § 2601, et. seq. The Court determined that the fees imposed were not “kickbacks or referral fees that tend to increase unnecessarily the costs of certain settlement services” as prohibited by RE SPA because the Disputed Charges were never assessed for settlement services. As these disputed fees were charged upon prepayment of the principal, not at the settlement or [94]*94closing of the plaintiffs’ loans, they could not have been assessed for settlement services. Furthermore, the Court dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims pursuant to section 2610 of RES-PA, finding that no private right of action can be maintained for violation of that section.

Finally, the Court dismissed certain state law causes of action, finding that the state statutes in Counts III and IV of the complaint were preempted by the federal regulations implementing the Home Owner’s Loan Act, 12 U.S.C. § 1461-70 (“HOLA”). Pursuant to the broad reach of HOLA, the Office of Thrift Supervision of the Treasury Department (“OTS”) was invested with authority and enacted regulations with the stated purpose of “oceup[ying] the entire field of lending regulation for federal savings associations.” 12 C.F.R. § 560.2(a). Based upon the express preemption of the entire field, the Court found the state enactments relied upon in Counts III and IV of the complaint preempted.

With respect to Count III of the complaint, the plaintiffs alleged violations of New York Real Property Law § 274-a; New Jersey Statutes Annotated §§ 46:10B-2 and 46:10B-25(f); and North Carolina General Statutes § 45-36(h). The Court found that each statute directly regulated certain fees that mortgage lenders may charge borrowers in connection with prepayment of a mortgage. The Court found the statutes preempted as the federal regulations applied to “state laws purporting to impose requirements regarding ... [l]oan-related fees, including without limitation, ... prepayment penalties [and] servicing fees.” 12 C.F.R. § 560.2(b)(5).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
255 F.R.D. 89, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106631, 2008 WL 5501037, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cassese-v-washington-mutual-inc-nyed-2008.