On January 15, 2019, the Supreme Court issued an important decision regarding the enforceability of certain arbitration agreements under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). In New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, No. 17-340, the Supreme Court unanimously held that courts should determine whether a contract falls within the “contracts of employment”…
On January 15, 2019, the Court heard arguments in Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. v. Jackson, No. 17-1471, and is now set to answer the question of whether the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA)—which permits removal by “any defendant” in a state court class action—allows for removal by third-party counterclaim defendants. …
The issue of whether the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) applies to non-judicial foreclosure proceedings is now squarely before the U.S. Supreme Court. Following oral arguments last week in the case Obduskey v. Wells Fargo, et al., No. 17-1307, the Justices will be tasked with deciding whether non-judicial foreclosures qualify…
On November 13, 2018, the District of Minnesota rejected the Ninth Circuit’s expansive interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA’s) automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) provision in Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC. In Roark v. Credit One Bank, N.A., No. 16-cv-00173 (D. Minn. Nov. 13, 2018), the court…
On November 13, 2018, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in PDR Network, LLC v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic (No. 17-1705), to answer the question whether the Hobbs Act required the district court to accept the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC’s) legal interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). At issue…
On September 20, 2018, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion finding that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA’s) “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) definition is vague and ambiguous, and interpreting the statutory definition anew. More specifically, in Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC, the court interpreted the TCPA’s ATDS definition…
On August 28, 2018, the Ninth Circuit affirmed Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ decisions in two putative class actions challenging Citibank’s and J.P. Morgan Chase’s default servicing practices. In Stitt v. Citibank, N.A. and Ellis v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the Ninth Circuit concluded that Judge Rogers had correctly dismissed…
On August 13, 2018, the California Supreme Court answered a question certified to it by the Ninth Circuit, holding that a loan with a high interest rate can be unconscionable, even if the legislature specifically declined to impose an interest rate cap on loans of that amount. See De La Torre…
On July 16, 2018, in Collins v. Mnuchin, No. 17-20364, a Fifth Circuit panel ruled that the single-director structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is unconstitutional. The ruling comes on the heels of the Southern District of New York’s CFPB v. RD Legal Funding LLC decision (2018 WL 3094916…
On March 16, 2018, the D.C. Circuit issued a long-awaited ruling in ACA International v. FCC, which struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) expansive interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA’s) “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) definition. As LenderLaw Watch analyzed more fully here, the D.C. Circuit focused…
On May 15, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an important decision regarding the statute of limitations under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1692, et seq. In Rotkiske v. Klemm, No. 16-1668 (3d Cir. May 15, 2018), on appeal…
On May 8, 2018, the Sixth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) claim against Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. As the Sixth Circuit noted at the start of its opinion in Health One Medical Center, Eastpointe P.L.L.C. v. Mohawk, Inc. et al., “[s]ome questions seem to arise…
On April 2, 2018, the Superior Court of Suffolk County, Massachusetts denied Equifax, Inc.’s motion to dismiss the Commonwealth’s case against it related to the company’s widely publicized 2017 data breach. Although the ruling does not determine who will ultimately prevail in the action, it outlines several key considerations for…
On March 15, 2018, in Chamber of Com. of the U.S. v. U.S. Dep’t. of Labor (No. 17-10238, 5th Cir. Mar. 15, 2018), the Fifth Circuit entered an order enjoining enforcement of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule (Fiduciary Rule), finding that the DOL exceeded its statutory authority in…
On February 26, 2018, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in New Prime, Inc. v. Oliviera, 17-340, a First Circuit case arising from the District of Massachusetts. The case is posed to resolve a split among the circuit courts as to who – the court or the arbitrator – decides whether…
On February 16, 2018, the 6th Circuit, in Hagy v. Demers & Adams (882 F.3d 616 (6th Cir. Feb. 16, 2018)), found that a former borrower did not have standing to assert a claim under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) absent a showing of concrete harm. The case is one of…
On January 31, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit), sitting en banc, issued its long-awaited decision in PHH Corp. v. CFPB, holding that the provision of the Dodd-Frank Act shielding the single director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from removal without cause…
On January 3, 2018, the Second Circuit decided Latner v. Mount Sinai Health Sys., Inc., 879 F.3d 52 (2d Cir. 2018), affirming the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York’s decision to dismiss the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) suit, and finding that the plaintiff consented to…
On December 5, 2017, the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union filed a lawsuit against President Trump and Mick Mulvaney over Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney as the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The case, Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union v. Trump, et al., No….
On August 15, 2017, the Northern District of Illinois denied class certification to a proposed Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class in Legg v. PTZ Insurance Agency Ltd., No. 14 C 10043. The court held that, because some of the named plaintiffs consented to receive communications from the defendants, they…