I. LEO GLASSER, Senior District Judge.
Plaintiff mortgagors (collectively "Plaintiffs") bring this action against their mortgage originators and servicers (collectively "Defendants"), alleging ten claims: breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, promissory estoppel, fraudulent concealment, fraud, unjust enrichment, fraud in the inducement, violation of 29 state consumer-protection statutes (each Plaintiff alleges the violation of only the statute of the state in which he or she resides), violation of the Federal Truth in Lending Act ("TILA"), 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq., and violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act ("RESPA"), 12 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq. Defendants move to sever the Plaintiffs and dismiss the claims of the remaining Plaintiff. The motion is GRANTED.
The following facts are taken from Plaintiffs' complaint as well as extrinsic documents the Court may consider in ruling on this motion. Plaintiffs are 119
Plaintiffs challenge a number of Defendants' lending and servicing practices, beginning with the origination of Plaintiffs' mortgages. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants engaged in "deceptive and predatory lending practices" by misrepresenting the risks of Plaintiffs' mortgages. These misrepresentations include statements that the housing market was stable and exaggerations of the expected increase in housing prices; failures to meaningfully discuss the "individual implications" of their loans' terms, such as the risks of interest-only payments or adjustable interest rates; and failing to disclose that Plaintiffs' mortgages would serve as collateral for mortgage-backed securities, in effect attenuating or eliminating Defendants' interest in avoiding foreclosure on Plaintiffs' homes.
Each Plaintiff at some point began to fall behind on his or her mortgage payments and thus requested a loan-modification agreement from one of the Defendants. Defendants participate in the Home Affordable Modification Program ("HAMP"), pursuant to which they receive funding from the Treasury Department and in exchange are obligated to modify the mortgage terms of eligible mortgagors. According to Plaintiffs, Defendants operated "fraudulent loan modification program[s]" by offering illusory opportunities for modification. Defendants did not respond to some Plaintiffs' requests for modification. For those Plaintiffs to whom Defendants did respond, the Defendants told Plaintiffs that permanent modification was available if Plaintiffs submitted necessary documentation and completed a trial modification period. But despite fulfilling these requirements, Defendants either did not offer permanent modification on the pretext that Plaintiffs did not meet all of the requirements or offered permanent modification with terms so unfavorable that Plaintiffs could not comply with even the modified terms. Some Plaintiffs' homes were later sold in foreclosure.
Each Plaintiff later requested information about the servicing of his or her loan from one of the Defendants, pursuant to RESPA, but Defendants did not respond "in a meaningful way" or "attempt in any way to resolve the issues" the Plaintiffs complained of.
Plaintiffs filed suit in this Court on April 17, 2013. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss on August 26, 2013. Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on September 30, 2013. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint on October 11, 2013. Plaintiffs filed a response in opposition to the motion on December 2, 2013. Defendants filed a reply in support of their motion on January 21, 2014.
Plaintiffs incorrectly claim that this Court has diversity jurisdiction.
A plaintiff may file an amended complaint more than 21 days after service of a motion to dismiss only if they receive leave from the Court or the defendant consents. FED. R. CIV. P. 15(a)(1)(B), (a)(2). Plaintiffs' amended complaint was filed more than a month after Defendants filed their motion. Although Plaintiffs did not seek leave of Court or receive Defendants' explicit consent, Defendants have implicitly consented by filing a new motion responding to the amended complaint. 6 WRIGHT, MILLER & KANE, FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 1490 (3d ed. 2010) ("[C]onsent may be implied from an act of the party indicating an acquiescence in the amendment, especially if that act is evidenced by a writing."). The amended complaint thus survives.
Multiple plaintiffs may be joined in one action if their claims arise "out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences," and there is a "question of law or fact common to all plaintiffs." FED. R. CIV. P. 20(a)(1). In other words, plaintiffs may be joined in one action if "`the essential facts of the various claims are so logically connected that considerations of judicial economy and fairness dictate that all issues be resolved in one lawsuit.'"
Plaintiffs argue that joinder is proper because their claims are rooted in "established, corporate-level arrangements, which are not at all dependent upon the particular language of any Plaintiffs' [sic] mortgage, or the circumstances in which their loan origination arose." This is an interesting procession of words culminating in a sentence of uncertain meaning, glaringly absent from which are "logically connected" essential facts prerequisite to their claim for joinder. Even a cursory examination of the amended complaint compels the conclusion that the facts underlying the claims of each Plaintiff are not common to, or "logically connected," to the claims of every other Plaintiff. Nor is the alleged grievance against each Defendant so uniformly and legally egregious that judicial economy and fairness would counsel that all their claims be resolved en masse. A reading of their amended complaint counsels exactly the opposite. Accordingly, the Defendants' motion to sever all Plaintiffs from the first-named Plaintiff, Marian Martin, is granted.
This conclusion is in accord with this Court's recent holdings, in three cases remarkably similar
To survive a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), the plaintiff's pleading must contain "sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to `state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.'"
Although there are a great number of general allegations in the amended complaint, there are few allegations specific to Martin, the only remaining Plaintiff. Martin alleges that she owns a home on State Island that was financed through a mortgage originated and serviced by Bank of America. As for Bank of America's purported wrongdoing, she says only, "Plaintiff Martin applied for loan modification from Defendant Bank of America multiple times, including on or about September 2012, and submitted a QWR [qualified written request] to Defendant Bank of America on or about July 2012. Plaintiff Martin alleges wrongdoing by Defendant Bank of America as detailed throughout this complaint."
These allegations do not state a claim for relief under any of Martin's ten claims because they do not identify
This Court, however, will allow Martin to file a second amended complaint that is tailored specifically to her claims.
For all of the foregoing reasons, Defendants' motion to sever and dismiss is GRANTED. The claims of the Plaintiffs other than Martin are dismissed without prejudice to filing separate actions. Martin's claims are dismissed without prejudice to filing a second amended complaint in this action.
SO ORDERED.