Judith CARTER, Plaintiff, v. BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., Et Al., Defendants

888 F. Supp. 2d 1, 2012 WL 3198354, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110948
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedAugust 8, 2012
DocketCivil Action No. 2011-1584
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 888 F. Supp. 2d 1 (Judith CARTER, Plaintiff, v. BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., Et Al., Defendants) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Judith CARTER, Plaintiff, v. BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., Et Al., Defendants, 888 F. Supp. 2d 1, 2012 WL 3198354, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110948 (D.D.C. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BERYL A. HOWELL, District Judge.

The plaintiff, Judith Carter, brought this lawsuit in the D.C. Superior Court against Bank of America, N.A. (“Bank of America” or “BOA”), Freedom Mortgage Corporation (“Freedom Mortgage”), the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (“MERS”), and the attorney for Bank of America (identified as John Doe) (collectively, “the defendants”) 1 alleging multiple grievances related to a 2004 mortgage refinancing, the subsequent denial of the plaintiffs application for a loan modification, and alleged foreclosure proceedings on the plaintiffs home. Specifically, the plaintiffs Amended Complaint (“Am. Compl.”), ECF No. 17, includes twenty-one causes of action, including, inter alia, for violations of the Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1601, et seq., the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”), 12 U.S.C. § 2605(b)(2)(A), the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), as well as for common law fraud, gross negligence, unfair and deceptive business practices, uneonscionability, unjust enrichment, predatory lending, and wrongful foreclosure.

Pending before the Court are motions to dismiss from defendant Freedom Mortgage, ECF No. 18, and defendants Bank of America and MERS, ECF No. 20. For the reasons explained below, the Court will grant both motions to dismiss.

I. BACKGROUND

A. FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS

The plaintiffs 56-page Amended Complaint, with 316 numbered paragraphs, is purportedly focused on an action “[arising] out of Defendants’ fraudulent sale of a mortgage to Plaintiff Judith Carter, the fraudulent foreclosure of that mortgage, [and] the fraudulent denial of a [Home *7 Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) ] agreement.” Am. Compl. ¶ 1. “The essence of this lawsuit,” the Amended Complaint explains, “is that the profit center of the mortgage bond business for Bank of America drove the granting of this mortgage in violation of state and federal law.” Id. ¶ 2. 2 Unfortunately for the plaintiff, the Amended Complaint seems to be more focused on providing a colorful narrative of the mortgage crisis 3 than articulating plausible, or even comprehensible, factual allegations directly relevant to the plaintiffs claims. To the extent that the Court can decipher the factual allegations specifically relevant 4 to the plaintiffs claims from the rambling and internally inconsistent Amended Complaint, it views them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, as it must at this stage of the proceedings. See Aktieselskabet AF 21. November 2001 v. Fame Jeans, 525 F.3d 8, 15 (D.C.Cir.2008) (quoting Kassem v. Wash. Hosp. Ctr., 513 F.3d 251, 253 (D.C.Cir.2008)); see also Atherton v. D.C. Office of the Mayor, 567 F.3d 672, 681 (D.C.Cir.2009).

The plaintiffs claims arise from a 2004 home loan refinancing transaction for a property the plaintiff owned at 445 17th Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003, the plaintiffs subsequent efforts to qualify for a loan modification, and foreclosure proceedings that may or not have been initiated on the plaintiffs property. Id. ¶¶ 36-37, 43.

1. Mortgage Issued to the Plaintiff

On August 16, 2004, the plaintiff closed on a $318,500 5 refinance mortgage for her home at 445 17th Street SE with Freedom Mortgage. Id. ¶ 76; Mem. in Supp. of Defs. Bank of America and MERS Mot. to Dismiss PL’s Am. Compl., ECF No. 20 (“Defs. BOA & MERS’ Mem.”), Ex. A, at 1. Out of this loan amount, it appears from the loan settlement statement that $228,466 was disbursed to pay in full an existing loan, while $80,042 appears to have been disbursed to the borrower. See *8 Defs. BOA & MERS’ Mem., Ex. B. The loan appears to have been a thirty-year loan with a fixed annual rate of 6%. 6 Am. Compl. ¶ 38; see also Defs. BOA & MERS’ Mem., Ex. A, at 1. The plaintiff alleges that the thirty-year mortgage was “subject to no equity build up in the first ten years” and “had very little principle reduction in the first 15 years.” Am. Compl. ¶ 53.

The plaintiff makes a variety of allegations about the allegedly fraudulent manner in which the loan was issued. First, the plaintiff states that the loan was awarded based solely upon credit scores and a “Stated Income,” which was “a fiction created by the Lender’s agent.” Id. ¶ 66. Second, the plaintiff alleges that Freedom Mortgage conducted no independent income verification, nor was any effort made to determine the plaintiff’s ability to repay the loan. Id. ¶¶ 64, 69. 7 Third, the plaintiff notes that she paid $8,758.75 in “discount points” to obtain the 6% rate, in addition to a $3,185 origination fee, both of which she says were “high by industry standards.” Id. ¶ 40. Fourth, the plaintiff states that the loan had a “74.81% Debt-to-Income ratio, which is beyond underwriting standards and is a predatory loan.” Id. ¶ 42. Fifth, the plaintiff states that, because of these fees, and the size and structure of the loan, the plaintiff lost equity in her home. Id. ¶¶ 139, 253. Sixth, the plaintiff alleges that she was “never notified about [a] higher rate to qualify. The loan was approved based on the pre-sale of the loan, and the appraised value of the collateral, rather than the Plaintiffs ability to repay the loan.” Id. ¶ 51. Finally, the plaintiff states that “[t]his loan was not approved in the Plaintiffs best interest.” Id. ¶ 39. The plaintiff elaborates that she “should not have been approved on this type of loan product at 68.87% LTV. It was a ‘toxic’ loan from its creation,” id. ¶ 50, and was more than the plaintiff “could ever afford to repay.” Id. ¶ 52. 8

At some point between the issuance of the loan in 2004 and the filing of the *9 instant lawsuit in 2011, the plaintiff went into default on the loan. Id. ¶ 99. Before the plaintiff went into default, however, loan servicing rights had been transferred from Freedom Mortgage to Bank of America. Id. ¶ 78. 9

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888 F. Supp. 2d 1, 2012 WL 3198354, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110948, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/judith-carter-plaintiff-v-bank-of-america-na-et-al-defendants-dcd-2012.