Two borrowers filed a putative class action complaint in Pennsylvania federal court alleging that mortgage lender, First Horizon Home Loan Corporation, private mortgage insurers First Horizon had selected, and FT Reinsurance Company had engaged in a “captive reinsurance scheme” whereby illegal referral payments in the form of reinsurance premiums had been paid by the private mortgage insurers to FT Reinsurance, a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Horizon. Plaintiffs alleged that the reinsurance premiums violated the anti-kickback provisions of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and that little or no risk was actually transferred from the mortgage insurers to FT Reinsurance. The court granted motions to dismiss filed by mortgage insurers Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation, Republic Mortgage Insurance Company, and Radian Guaranty, Inc., finding that plaintiffs did not have standing to sue because these insurers had not issued them policies. The court denied motions to dismiss filed by the other defendants, however, holding that plaintiffs had sufficiently alleged that the statute of limitations on their claims was equitably tolled and, moreover, that plaintiffs could proceed on their unjust enrichment theory because it was not clear whether plaintiffs’ mortgage contracts cover the same subject as their lawsuit. Barlee v. First Horizon National Corp., Case No. 12-3045 (USDC E.D. Pa. Feb. 27, 2013).
This post written by Ben Seessel.
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