Landis v. Fannie Mae

922 F. Supp. 2d 646, 2013 WL 489444, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17075
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedFebruary 8, 2013
DocketNos. 12-cv-11996, 12-cv-12965
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 922 F. Supp. 2d 646 (Landis v. Fannie Mae) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Landis v. Fannie Mae, 922 F. Supp. 2d 646, 2013 WL 489444, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17075 (E.D. Mich. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER IMPOSING SANCTIONS PURSUANT TO RULE 11 AND 28 U.S.C. § 1927 ON PLAINTIFFS’ ATTORNEY, EMMETT GREENWOOD

GERALD E. ROSEN, Chief Judge.

The above-captioned cases are two of nine mortgage foreclosure cases assigned to this Court during the past year that were filed on behalf of the respective plaintiffs by Michigan attorney, Emmett Greenwood. Mr. Greenwood appears to have made' a living off distressed clients facing foreclosure of their mortgages and/or eviction from their homes. A review of the Eastern District of Michigan docket shows no fewer than 75 foreclosure cases filed by Mr. Greenwood in the last 12 months alone, virtually none of which have survived dispositive motion practice.1 Some were dismissed by stipulation. Some have been dismissed for failure of Mr. Greenwood to appear or respond to a dispositive motion. Others were dismissed for filing a response that was non-responsive to the dispositive motion. The Court is aware of one case that has been stayed by stipulation of the parties. As of this date, 33 of the cases filed by Mr. Greenwood remain pending before the various judges of the Eastern District. Four are pending be[647]*647fore this Court, including the Landis and Wicht cases.

In each of these cases, Mr. Greenwood filed essentially the same “cut and paste,” cookie cutter complaint, each alleging the very same counts, and each replete with the same spelling, typographical, and party gender and number errors.2 This slip shod litigation practice does not improve during the course of the lawsuits. In many of his cases — including cases assigned to this Court — Mr. Greenwood failed to timely respond to dispositive motions and instead, has acted — if at all— only when ordered to do so. See e.g., Bahnam v. Green Tree Servicing LLC, No. 12-12303 (July 20, 2012 order directing the plaintiff to respond to a motion to dismiss, Dkt. # 7); McCraney v. Bank of America, NA., NO. 12-11082 (May 11, 2012 order). See also Phelps v. Nations Star Mortgage LLC, No. 12-12589 (Dec. 6, 2012 order dismissing action for failure to respond to show cause order).

In those cases, in which he did respond, Mr. Greenwood filed cookie-cutter response briefs, which are identical to one another in all respects — argument for argument, paragraph for paragraph, sentence for sentence, word for word — making no attempt to demonstrate or differentiate the alleged “facts” underlying the various actions, and not responding to the particular factual or legal arguments made by the defendants. See e.g., Landis, No. 12-11996, Plaintiffs Oct. 12, 2012 Response to Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. #9; Wicht, No. 12-12965, Plaintiffs July. 13, 2012 Response to Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. # 4.

Furthermore, this Court, as well as numerous other Eastern District of Michigan judges, have previously dismissed Mr. Greenwood’s cases pointing out in the dismissal orders the lack of legal merit to the claims' alleged. See e.g., McCraney, supra, July 12, 2012 Opinion and Order Granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. # 11; Bahnam, supra, Aug. 14, 2012, Opinion and Order Granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. # 11; see also, Jenkins v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA., 12-12278 (Steeh, J.), July 25, 2012 Order Granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. # 7; Saxton v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA., No. 12-11670 (Cohn, J.), August 17, 2012 Memorandum and Order Granting Defendant’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings and Dismissing Case, Dkt. # 12; Enyia v. Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., No. 12-12118 (Battani, J.), Aug. 31, 2012 Opinion and Order Granting Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. # 11; Evans v. LNV Corporation, 12-12287 (Edmunds, J.), Sept. 13, 2012 Order Granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. # 6. Undeterred by these dismissals, Mr. Greenwood has continued to file his cookie-cutter complaints and his same cookie-cutter brief in response to dispositive motions.

Even after being criticized by this Court and several other judges for this practice, he remained undeterred and continued his cookie-cutter filings. See, e.g., Nagy v. Federal National Mortgage Ass’n, No. 12-14149 (Rosen, J.), Nov. 9, 2012 Order for Plaintiff and his Counsel to Show Cause [648]*648Why Complaint Should not be Dismissed, Dkt. # Dkt. # 5; Phelps v. Nations Star Mortgage LLC, No. 12-12589 (Rosen, J) (Nov. 9, 2012 Order for Plaintiff and her Counsel to Show Cause Why Complaint Should not be Dismissed, Dkt. # 5; Kopko v. The Bank of New York Mellon, No. 12-13 941 (Duggan, J.), Oct. 23, 2012, Opinion and Order Granting Defendant’s Motion, Dkt. # 9).

In Kopko, Judge Duggan was explicit. After noting the previous dismissals by various judges of Greenwood’s cookie cutter complaints, Judge Duggan admonished Mr. Greenwood:

Plaintiffs counsel should know at this juncture that the allegations he is including in those complaints and the claims he is asserting on behalf of his clients are insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss. His repeated use of the almost identical complaint without changes necessary to reflect the circumstances of the particular case renders his unprofessional conduct even more offensive.

Id. at p. 11-12, n. 6. See also, Saroki v. The Bank of New York Mellon, No. 12-13961 (Duggan, J.), Oct. 31, 2012 Opinion and Order Granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. # 8 (“Unfortunately for the individuals he represents, Mr. Greenwood has filed the identical cookie-cutter complaint in every case ... and the judges in this District consistently have held that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. The Complaint in the present case is no exception.”); Jewell v. Federal National Mortgage Ass’n, 12-10979 (Cleland, J.) Nov. 30, 2012 Order Granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. # 7 (referring to Plaintiffs non-responsive response brief as “an empty exercise consisting of’ nothing more than “statements of either law or unremarkable fact” and mere “summary assertion[s].”)

But even these criticisms and admonishments did not deter Mr. Greenwood and he has continued with his cookie-cutter filings. Therefore, on November 28, 2012, this Court entered an Order to Appear and Show Cause in Landis and Wicht, directing Mr. Greenwood to appear before the Court on January 9, 2013 and show cause why he should not be sanctioned pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 11 “for filing pleadings and briefs that present factual contentions lacking evidentiary support, and claims and legal contentions not warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for extending or modifying existing law.” See Landis, No. 12-11996, Dkt. # 10; Wicht, No. 12-12965, Dkt. # 5. Mr. Greenwood, however, failed to appear as ordered.

Because of the inconvenience he caused defense counsel and the Court by his failure to appear on January 9th, as a first step to remedy and address his non-appearance, and to deter any further such conduct by him, the Court ordered Greenwood to pay to the Court a fine of $1,000 and further ordered him to pay the attorneys’ costs and fees incurred by the Defendants in connection with their attorneys’ appearance and response to the Show Cause Order. See Jan.

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Related

Thill v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC.
8 F. Supp. 3d 950 (E.D. Michigan, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
922 F. Supp. 2d 646, 2013 WL 489444, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17075, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/landis-v-fannie-mae-mied-2013.