UDAAP Council Weekly UDAAP Standards Report – 1/14/2015

Every week, courts around the United States issue decisions addressing aspects of civil UDAAP claims.

In an effort to illuminate the UDAAP standards, below is a sampling of some of this week’s UDAAP decisions on the meaning of unfair, deceptive, and abusive.

Deceptive

• A mortgage lender was entitled to judgment in its favor on borrowers’ claims that it engaged in deceptive practices in violation of Nevada’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The borrowers’ allegations that the lender failed to disclose deferred interest and negative amortization of their adjustable rate mortgage loan failed given provisions in the loan documents disclosing the potential for such charges. Tennier v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., United States District Court for the District of Nevada.
• A plaintiff did not state a claim for violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act where he alleged that a debt collector sent her letters and called her after her regarding settling her mortgage lien after her debt was discharged in bankruptcy.  The court found that the plaintiff failed to allege any misleading statement or damages. Ferrara v. LCS Financial Services Corp., United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Abusive

• A debt collector was entitled to judgment in its favor on allegations that it violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by calling a debtor five times and reporting the debt to a credit reporting agency after the debtor verbally disputed the debt. Oral dispute of a debt does not trigger the statutory obligation for a debt collector to cease collection efforts. Hinkle v. Midland Credit Management, Inc., United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.
• A borrower failed to state a claim under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it alleged that a loan servicer engaged in abusive conduct by threatening nonjudicial foreclosure after a mediator refused to issue a certificate of foreclosure and contacting the borrower after his counsel repeatedly directed it not to. The FDCPA does not apply to actions relating to nonjudicial foreclosure. Dowers v. Nationstar Mortgage, LLC, United States District Court for the District of Nevada.

Note that this Weekly UDAAP Standards Report serves to highlight only some of the many weekly developments in the law around these standards.

Please feel free to contact me for more information or to discuss these cases or any other UDAAP developments.

Best,

Marty