OJELADE v. OCWEN FINANCIAL CORPORATION

CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedJune 30, 2025
Docket3:25-cv-01111
StatusUnknown

This text of OJELADE v. OCWEN FINANCIAL CORPORATION (OJELADE v. OCWEN FINANCIAL CORPORATION) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
OJELADE v. OCWEN FINANCIAL CORPORATION, (D.N.J. 2025).

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

OLUSOLA OJELADE and SHERIFAT SOLA-OJELADE, Plaintiffs, Civil Action No. 25-1111 (RK) JBD) V. OPINION OCWEN FINANCIAL CORPORATION, PHH MORTGAGE SERVICING CORPORATION, NEWREZ LLC, and SHELLPOINT MORTGAGE SERVICING Defendants.

KIRSCH, District Judge THIS MATTER comes before the Court upon Defendant PHH Mortgage Corporation’s (“PHH’’) Motion to Dismiss (ECF Nos. 12; 12-1, “MTD’’) the Complaint (ECF No. 1, “Compl.”) filed by pro se Plaintiffs Olusola Ojelade and Sherifat Sola-Ojelade (together, “Plaintiffs’’). Plaintiffs filed an opposition to the MTD (ECF No. 13, “Opp.’’) and PHH filed a reply (ECF No. 15, “Reply”’). Defendants NewRez LLC (“NewRez”) and Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing (“Shellpoint”) have not appeared in this action. The Court has considered the parties’ submissions and resolves the matter without oral argument pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 78 and Local Civil Rule 78.1. For the reasons set forth below, PHH’s MTD is GRANTED and Plaintiffs’ Complaint is DISMISSED without prejudice as to all Defendants except Shellpoint.

I. BACKGROUND At this juncture, the Court accepts as true all of Plaintiffs’ allegations and construes them liberally and in the light most favorable to the pro se Plaintiffs, endeavoring to decipher and discern

the factual basis of Plaintiffs’ skeletal and scattershot, handwritten pleading. See Kulwicki v. Dawson, 969 F.2d 1454, 1462 (3d Cir. 1992). Plaintiffs allege that in August 2005, they secured a mortgage on their home in Sayerville, New Jersey with Defendant Ocwen Financial Corporation (“Ocwen”) as the loan servicer. (Compl. at 3.)! In 2013, Ocwen offered Plaintiffs a loan modification, which, Plaintiffs assert, modified their mortgage payment amount, and also consolidated two mortgages into one single mortgage. (/d.)? Despite Plaintiffs’ reference to a second mortgage, the Complaint leaves the Court to wonder when and under what circumstances this mortgage came to be, what the value of the mortgage was, and whether Plaintiffs ever made payments toward the balance of this mortgage; and if not, what, if anything, the mortgagee did as a result of Plaintiffs’ nonpayments. Over a decade later, in August 2024, Plaintiffs sold their property and attempted to pay off the mortgage, using the proceeds from the sale. (/d.) To their surprise, PHH, and their alleged successor company, NewRez, only lifted “part of the lien,” claiming that Plaintiffs still had a debt to settle: the second mortgage. Ud.) NewRez informed Plaintiffs that they had to contact Shellpoint, the company to whom the second mortgage was transferred in 2021, and pay an outstanding sum of $82,000. (/d. at 6.) As alleged, the four defendants in this case—-Ocwen, PHH, NewRez—can be categorized in two different tranches. Defendants “Ocwen/P[H]H/NewRez” fall into the first bucket: Plaintiffs allege receiving no communication about the second mortgage from these defendants from 2013

Defendant PHH asserts that it has been “incorrectly pled as ‘Ocwen Financial Corporation (doing business as) PHH Mortgage.’” (Opp. at 1.) The Court recognizes that the pending MTD was filed on behalf of PHH Mortgage Corporation, but still refers to allegations as to Ocwen, per Plaintiffs’ Complaint. Although Plaintiffs do not specifically allege that they took out a second mortgage on their house, the Court infers this fact based on Plaintiffs’ allegation that the alleged loan modification consolidated the two mortgages into a single mortgage.

(the year of the alleged modification) through 2021 (the “2021 Defendants”). Ud.) The second bucket, which includes only defendant Shellpoint (the “2024 Defendant’), picks up chronologically where the first bucket leaves off. Plaintiffs allege that Shellpoint purchased the second mortgage in 2021, and never sent any communications about it until their property was sold in August 2024. Ud.) The defendants’ combined failure to communicate allegedly led Plaintiffs to believe that they had no outstanding balance on the second mortgage. (/d.) Although Plaintiffs felt “ambushed” by the news of their second mortgage, they still ultimately paid it off. (Id. at 4.) Now, invoking the Truth in Lending Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq. (id. at 2), Plaintiffs seek a refund of their payment in the form of nearly $82,000, as well as compensation of $10 million for “immeasurable emotional and financial trauma suffered,” lost investment opportunities, damage on their credit score, and to deter companies from engaging in similar conduct. (Ud. at 4.) Plaintiffs filed their form Complaint on February 8, 2025. (ECF No. 1.) On March 9, the pro se Plaintiffs filed certificates of service, purportedly averring that service had been effectuated on all defendants: Ocwen, PHH, Shellpoint, and NewRez. (See ECF No. 9.) While the Court takes no position as to whether proper service was effectuated pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4, the Court notes that neither Shellpoint nor NewRez has appeared in this case. In the weeks that followed, Plaintiffs’ allegations have been supplemented by a litany of documents and factual assertions offered up by both parties, many of which the Court will not consider on a motion to dismiss. See Chavarriaga v. New Jersey Dep’t of Corr., 806 F.3d 210, 232 (3d Cir. 2015). Two weeks after filing their Complaint, on February 23, Plaintiffs filed six exhibits—a series of correspondence between Plaintiffs and Shellpoint, Ocwen, and NewRez, regarding the status of their two mortgages. (ECF No. 7.) PHH filed its MTD on March 17, and

attached three exhibits: Plaintiffs’ First Mortgage (ECF No. 12-2), Plaintiffs’ Second Mortgage (ECF No. 12-3), and the Loan Modification Agreement (ECF No. 12-4). On March 23, Plaintiffs filed a “PLEADING subsequent to Original Complaint: Reply to Defendants’ Memorandum of Defense,” which the Court will construe as an opposition to the MTD. (ECF No. 13); Local Civ. R. 7.1(d)(2).? PHH replied. (ECF No. 15.) The pending MTD is now ripe for decision. I. LEGAL STANDARD For a complaint to survive dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, it must contain “sufficient factual matter” to state a claim for relief that is “plausible on its face.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570); Clark v. Coupe, 55 F.4th 167, 178 (3d Cir. 2022). A claim is facially plausible “when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Jd. When assessing the factual allegations in a complaint, courts “disregard legal conclusions and recitals of the elements of a cause of action that are supported only by mere conclusory statements.” Wilson v. USI Ins. Serv. LLC, 57 F.4th 131, 140 (3d Cir. 2023). The court accepts all allegations in the complaint as true and gives the plaintiff “the benefit of every favorable inference to be drawn therefrom.” Kulwicki v. Dawson, 969 □□□□ 1454, 1462 (3d Cir. 1992). “Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555. A court must be mindful to hold a pro se plaintiff's

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OJELADE v. OCWEN FINANCIAL CORPORATION, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ojelade-v-ocwen-financial-corporation-njd-2025.