Sterling v. Nationstar Mortgage LLC

CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedMarch 13, 2025
Docket6:24-cv-01029
StatusUnknown

This text of Sterling v. Nationstar Mortgage LLC (Sterling v. Nationstar Mortgage LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sterling v. Nationstar Mortgage LLC, (M.D. Fla. 2025).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA ORLANDO DIVISION

SHERRYL STERLING,

Plaintiff,

v. Case No: 6:24-cv-1029-PGB-LHP

NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC, Defendant. / ORDER This cause comes before the Court on Defendant Nationstar Mortgage LLC’s (“Defendant”) Motion to Dismiss Counts I, II, III, and VIII of Plaintiff’s Complaint. (Doc. 36 (the “Motion”)). Plaintiff Sherryl Sterling (“Plaintiff”) has responded in opposition. (Doc. 39 (the “Response”)). Further, Plaintiff has filed a Notice of Supplemental Authority. (Doc. 41). Upon consideration, the Motion is due to be denied in part and found as moot in part.1 I. BACKGROUND2 Through this action, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant has violated the statutory provisions of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, 12 U.S.C. §§

1 In the Response, Plaintiff states that she seeks to withdraw her claims in Count VIII against Defendant. The Court therefore does not discuss Count VIII herein. Instead, the Court dismisses the claims against Defendant in Count VIII without prejudice and finds Defendant’s arguments as to this count to be moot.

2 This account of the facts comes from Plaintiff’s Complaint. (Doc. 1 (the “Complaint”)). The Court accepts well-pled factual allegations as true when considering motions to dismiss. Williams v. Bd. of Regents, 477 F.3d 1282, 1291 (11th Cir. 2007). 2601–2617 (“RESPA”), as well as its associated regulations, 21 C.F.R. §§ 1024.1– 1024.41 (“Regulation X”). (Doc. 1). Plaintiff owns real property located in Orlando, Florida (the “Home”),

which serves as her primary place of residence. (Id. ¶¶ 1–2). Plaintiff acquired the Home after its prior owner, Erasmue Brown (“Brown”), passed away in January of 2020. (Id. ¶ 25). Brown had obtained the promissory note on the Home and the mortgage that secured it (collectively, the “Loan”). (See id. ¶¶ 3, 24). Defendant was the servicer on the Loan from March 1, 2019, to January 22, 2024. (Id. ¶ 5).

Former Defendant Selene Finance LP (“Selene”) has been the servicer on the Loan since January 23, 2024.3 (Id. ¶ 7). Upon Brown’s death, Plaintiff was named personal representative of Brown’s estate. (Id. ¶ 26). Two months later, Plaintiff lost her job due to the COVID-19 pandemic and thereafter accepted Defendant’s offer to place the Loan in forbearance. (Id. ¶ 27). The Loan remained in forbearance until July 2021. (Id.

¶ 28). When Plaintiff secured a new job in April 2021, she contacted Defendant to “enter into a permanent loan modification and to bring the Loan current.” (Id. ¶ 29). Defendant confirmed Plaintiff was the successor in interest on the Loan and permitted her to assume the payments for the Loan. (Id. ¶ 30). Moreover, “[o]n multiple occasions, [Defendant] approved [Plaintiff] for an assumption of the Loan

along with a permanent modification.” (Id. ¶ 31). Defendant thus sent assumption

3 On December 5, 2024, the Court was notified that Plaintiff’s claims against Selene had been resolved. (Doc. 42). Accordingly, the only operative counts of the Complaint are those containing Plaintiff’s claims against Defendant as described herein. and modification documents (the “Loan Modification Agreement(s)”) for Plaintiff to execute on at least six different occasions.4 (Id. ¶ 32). On each such occasion, Plaintiff executed the Loan Modification Agreement before a notary and

returned it to Defendant. (Id. ¶ 33). However, on October 17, 2023, Defendant sent Plaintiff a letter stating, in relevant part: You were previously offered a permanent Loan Modification. The terms of the Loan Modification Agreement required that you remit all copies of the agreement properly signed and notarized, if required, by all borrowers within the time allowed. Unfortunately, we must withdraw the agreement offered because we did not receive the properly executed copies as required. This means that your loan terms will not be modified, and your loan may be in default.

(Id. ¶ 55; Doc. 1-8 (the “Purported Withdrawal Letter”) (emphasis added)).5 Plaintiff thus avers that Defendant inexplicably “refused to implement an assumption and permanent modification of the Loan.” (Doc. 1, ¶ 35). Further, in the ensuing months, Defendant sent Plaintiff correspondence wrongfully claiming that she was in default on the Loan and misrepresenting the amount of money that she owed.6 (Id. ¶ 36).

4 Plaintiff alleges that, at a minimum, Defendant sent Plaintiff Loan Modification Agreements to execute on April 28, 2022; May 25, 2022; July 28, 2023; August 7, 2023; August 21, 2023; and September 5, 2023. (Doc. 1, ¶ 32).

5 After sending the Purported Withdrawal Letter, in January 2024, Defendant stated that it would mail another Loan Modification Agreement for Plaintiff to execute, but Plaintiff never received this document. (Id. ¶ 34).

6 Defendant sent such correspondence in November 2023, December 2023, and February 2024. (Id. ¶ 36). As a result of the foregoing, Plaintiff retained counsel. (Id. ¶ 40). On January 18, 2024, Plaintiff’s counsel sent a letter to Defendant (Doc. 1-3 (the “January Letter”)), which Plaintiff avers contained a notice of error under 12 C.F.R. §

1024.35 and requests for information under 12 C.F.R. § 1024.36. (Doc. 1-3; Doc. 1, ¶ 42). In Plaintiff’s notice of error (“NOE #1”), Plaintiff notified Defendant of its errors in repeatedly failing to implement a permanent loan modification agreement. (Doc. 1-3, pp. 2–4). In Plaintiff’s request for information (“RFI #1”), Plaintiff asked Defendant to provide the following information:

1. Copies of all assumption and modification agreements executed by [Plaintiff] and received by [Defendant] since August 1, 2021;

2. A copy of any communications, recordings of conversations, or communications logs concerning communications between [Defendant] and [Plaintiff] since August 1, 2021, specifically related to [Plaintiff’s] attempts at executing any loss mitigation 7 or assumption agreements and otherwise concerning the Modification or disputes regarding the same;

3. Identify, in detail, any deficiencies in the execution of acceptance of any assumption and modification agreements executed by [Plaintiff] and received by [Defendant] since August 1, 2021 and describe, in detail, any attempts by [Defendant] to rectify such delinquencies; and,

4. A copy of any correspondence between [Defendant] and the Borrower and/or [Plaintiff] since August 1, 2021, specifically related to attempts at loss mitigation and otherwise concerning loss mitigation attempts or disputes regarding either of the same concerning the Loan.

7 For clarity, a loss mitigation application is a request by the borrower to the mortgage loan servicer for “an alternative to foreclosure.” 12 C.F.R. § 1024.31. Accordingly, a request to modify a mortgage loan agreement can serve as a loss mitigation application. See id. (Id. at p. 4 (emphases added)). Defendant sent two letters in response to Plaintiff’s January Letter. (Docs. 1-4, 1-5 (collectively, the “January Responses”)). However, Defendant’s January Responses “wholly failed to address” Plaintiff’s

NOE #1 regarding Defendant’s repeated failure to implement a permanent loan modification. (Doc. 1, ¶ 48). Additionally, Defendant “failed to provide all of the information requested” in RFI #1. (Id.). Believing Defendant’s January Responses to be legally deficient, on April 11, 2024, Plaintiff sent a second letter to Defendant (Doc. 1-6 (the “April Letter”)),

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Sterling v. Nationstar Mortgage LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sterling-v-nationstar-mortgage-llc-flmd-2025.