Court Report

The court-appointed mediator assigned to United States v. Quicken Loans (No. 2:16-CV-14050), announced the conclusion and resolution and related suit between Quicken Loans Inc., the United States and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development related to Quicken Loans’ participation on HUD’s Federal Housing Administration lending program. Read on for more details.

After filing an adversary proceeding to determine the dischargeability of a debt against a debtor, the parties engaged in settlement discussions and the title insurer argued they entered into a settlement agreement. When it went to the court to enforce the agreement, the debtor argued that the settlement never had been finalized. Read on for more details.

After a man was discharged from bankruptcy, a notice of default and election to sell was executed against his California property. He filed suit against the trustee and lender two days before the planned sale of the property. The judge granted the defendants’ demurrers in that case, but three years later, he filed a similar case against the same defendants. The lender and trustee moved to dismiss. Read on for more details.

A law firm and its affiliated title agency moved to dismiss a third-party suit from the owner of New Orleans property, arguing that the owner’s claims are barred by res judicata. The owner was unable to develop the property as planned after third parties won a suit against it, enforcing a 1985 zoning ordinance. The owner had filed suit against the title company and/or law firm three previous times. Read on for more details.

After her property was foreclosed upon and sold at a sheriff’s sale, the former owner of Philadelphia property went about the procedure to receive the excess proceeds from the sale. When she got the proceeds, the attached breakdown of costs included a charge for a title insurance policy. She filed a class action complaint against the sheriff, alleging that the sheriff imposed procedures not required by state rule on her and other foreclosed upon homeowners. Read on for more details.

The president of a company that purchased property in Houston filed a guarantee agreement promising to be responsible for his company’s obligation under the note if his company defaulted. The company defaulted and a superior lienholder foreclosed on the property. The lender’s title insurer, as the lender’s subrogee, sued the company president as guarantor of the loan. After the title insurer successfully moved for summary judgment, the company president appealed. Read on for the appellate court’s decision.

A lender filed suit against several parties, seeking to quiet title and reform a deed conveying real property on the grounds of mutual mistake when the agent of the buyer mistakenly was identified as the grantee on the deed rather that the buyer. Read on for more details.

After its deed of trust was extinguished by a non-judicial foreclosure sale conducted by a homeowners’ association, the bank beneficiary under a deed of trust filed a claim under its title policy. When the underwriter denied the claim, the bank filed suit. Read on for more details.

On May 27, Gibbs Law Group LLP filed the first nationwide class action lawsuit accusing First American Title Company of failing to properly secure 885 million sensitive customer files, instead choosing to store them in a publicly accessible system. Read on for more details.

A title insurer sued two surveying firms, seeking to recover funds it paid out in claims to an insured as the result of both firms’ failure to include a 12-inch encroachment in their surveys of the property. Read on for more details.