On the Docket: Consumer Protection

Case Name: American Ins. Ass'n v. U.S. Dep't of Housing and Urban Dev.

Court: U.S. Dist Ct. D.C. Docket: 13-cv-00966-RJL

Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF)

Case Issue: Does HUD's final rule, "Implementation of the Fair Housing Act's Discriminatory Effects Standard," violate the Fair Housing Act (FHA) because it allows plaintiffs (1) to show disparate impact only by demonstrating a statistical disparity and (2) displace challenged policy choices without showing theirs are at least as effective? Does the FHA preclude the application of the Rule to homeowner insurers specifically because (1) the Rule "pervasively injects" race into what was a previously "race-blind" process and (2) insurance law requirements break the causal chain between the alleged discriminatory acts and the injury claimed by plaintiffs?

Case Name: Bright v. Brookdale Senior Living

Court: U.S. Dist. Ct. EMD Tenn Docket: 19-cv-00374

Read Complaint (PDF) and Article

Case Issue: Did Brookdale deceive class members in violation of state consumer protection statutes when it promised to provide care based on residents' assessed care needs but, in reality, provided care based on pre-determined profit goals set by the company's headquarters?

Case Name: Brookdale Senior Living v. Weir

Court: U.S. Dist. Ct. WD North Carolina Docket: 20-00293

Filed: 5/26/2020

Read Complaint (PDF) and Article

Case Issue: Does the arbitration agreement signed by Jean Howard, a former resident of a Brookdale Senior Living facility, allow for class-wide arbitration? And does the agreement require this question to be decided by an arbitrator, instead of a judge?

Case Name: Cedarbrook Residential Ctr. v. North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

Court: Supreme Ct. of North Carolina Docket: No. 36A22

Filed: 3/28/2022

Read Amicus Brief (PDF)

Case Issue: Can an adult-care facility sue the state for allegedly “negligent” inspection of the facility?

Case Name: Chancellor Senior Management v. McGraw

Court: West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Docket: 20-0794

Filed: 11/6/2020

Case Issue: Did the lower court err in denying Chancellor's Motion to Compel Arbitration? Are arbitration provisions incorporated into the residency agreement of an assisted living facility resident enforceable despite their noncompliance with the AHLA rules designated to govern them?.

Case Name: Francis v. Kings Park Manor

Court: U.S. Ct. App. 2d Cir. Docket: 15-1823

Decided: 3/25/2021

Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF) and Decision (PDF) Dissent/Concur Decision 1, Dissent/Concur Decision 2 (PDF)

Case Result: The en banc court concluded that plaintiff did not state a claim against the landlord-defendant under the FHA for tenant-on-tenant racial harassment in this case because the landlord could not be presumed to have the degree of control over the tenant necessary to impose liability under the act. Second Panel decision was vacated and decision below was affirmed.

Case Name: Gish (Matter of the Estate) v. Wells Fargo Bank

Court: New Mexico State Ct., Santa Fe Cty. Docket: D-101-PB-2015-00006

Read Amended Complaint (PDF) Answer to Amended Complaint (PDF) First Amended Counterclaim (PDF)

Case Issue: Did Wells Fargo violate state and federal law when it originated a reverse mortgage loan that cost a borrower more than the loan for which the applicant applied and was approved; did Wells Fargo have standing to foreclose on the loan?

Case Name: Gunza v. Brookdale Senior Living

Court: U.S. Dist. Ct. MD Tenn. Docket: 20-00353

Filed: 4/24/2020

Read Complaint (PDF)

Case Name: HSBC v. Morris

Court: Supreme Judicial Ct., Mass. Docket: SJC-13191

Filed: 1/18/2022

Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF)

Case Issue: Can a borrower raise defenses and counterclaims under the Mass. Predatory Home Lending Practices Act (PHLPA) in the eviction after the foreclosure from the home securing the loan.

Case Name: Impax Laboratories v. FTC

Court: U.S. Ct. App. 5th Cir. Docket: 19-60394

Decided: 4/13/2021

Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF) and Decision (PDF)

Case Result: The Fifth Circuit denied Impax Laboratories’s petition for review and upheld the Federal Trade Commission’s ruling that the company violated antitrust laws when it accepted $100 million worth of payments to delay the entry of its generic drug for more than two years.

Case Name: Maddox v. Bank of New York Mellon Trust

Court: U.S. Ct. App. 2d Cir. Docket: 19-1774

Decided: 11/17/2021

Read Amicus Brief (PDF) Decision (PDF)

Case Issue: Can a borrower seek damages in federal court for a mortgage laender's violation of state law?

Case Result: Reheard and reversed

Case Name: McGraw v. Chancellor Senior Management, LTD

Court: Circuit Ct., Raleigh County, WV Docket: 16-C-698

Read Complaint (PDF)

Case Issue: Are Chancellor's practices of marketing certain levels of services, assessing care needs at admission, and charging fees based on those needs; but then, failing to have sufficient staff to actually meet those needs unfair or deceptive acts or practices under West Virginia's consumer protection statute?

Case Name: Opiotennione v. Bozzuto Management Co.

Court: U.S. Dist. Ct. Maryland Docket: 20-1956 Decided: 7/20/2021

Read AARP Amicus Brief (PDF) and Decision (PDF)

Case Result: The Court held that Plaintiff did not have standing to assert her claims and dismissed the case.

Court: U.S. Ct. App. 4th Cir. Docket: 21-1919 Filed: 12/17/2021

Read AARP Amicus Brief (PDF)

Case Name: Our Lady of Consolation Care Ctr. v. Rivera-Zayas

Court: U.S. Ct. App. 2d Cir. Docket: 21-02164

Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF)

Filed: 4/4/2022

Case Issue: Does the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act of 2005 completely preempted state law claims brought during the pandemic such that a nursing facility resident cannot bring a lawsuit in state court against a nursing facility for injuries and death caused during the pandemic? Does the federal officer removal statute apply to cases that nursing facility residents bring during the pandemic?

Case Name: Shakespeare v. Live Well Financial (consumer)

Court: U.S. Dist. Ct. ED N.Y. (U.S. Ct. App. Second Circuit) Docket: 18-7299 (20-3533)

Filed in District Court: 12/21/2018 Decision in Appellate Court: 5/26/2021

Read Complaint (PDF) and Press Release (PDF) Press Release (Spanish),

Decision in U.S. Ct. App. 2d Cir. (PDF)

Issue in the U.S. District Court ED N.Y.: Did Live Well Financial and Celink violate reverse mortgage contracts and applicable law by prepaying property taxes of older homeowners without legal authority and without notice, and then wrongfully demanding repayment out of personal funds?

Case Result from the U.S. Ct. App. Second Circuit: The Second Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of the claims against Celink and remanded the case to the district for further proceedings. The court also affirmed the dismissal of the claims against Reverse Mortgage Funding, LLC.

Case Name: WVMF Funding v. Palmero

Court: Florida Supreme Court Docket: SC19-1920

Decided: 6/24/2021

Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF) and Decision (PDF)

Case Issue: Is a widowed spouse of homeowner, with a reverse mortgage on their marital home, protected from foreclosure because she is a “surviving borrower” of a federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage that protects either spouse from being forced to sell the home to repay the loan while at least one of them continues to live in the property?

Case Result: Reversed

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