Thompson v. Sovereign Bank, N.A. is a class action lawsuit filed to facilitate the settlement of claims asserted against Sovereign Bank, N.A., in five separate class action cases. Each of those cases alleges that now-defunct sub-prime mortgage lenders violated the Missouri Second Mortgage Loan Act by charging illegal fees in connection with residential second mortgage loans (sometimes called “home equity loans”) in the State of Missouri. Although Missouri law currently allows a lender to charge unlimited interest rates on such loans, strict limits are placed on settlement charges or fees that can be imposed in order to receive such loans.
Each of the underlying suits alleges that loans involving illegal fees were made to Missouri borrowers before later being transferred or assigned (by way of the secondary mortgage market) to various financial institutions, including Sovereign Bank, N.A. Those suits each allege that multiple defendants, including Sovereign, knew or should have know that illegal fees were charged, in violation of Missouri law, but that those defendants nonetheless collected payments of principal and interest on those loans, which is also a violation of Missouri law.
Those suits, like the Thompson case, seek to hold Sovereign liable for its own violations of Missouri law and also to establish Sovereign’s derivative liability (as an assignee) for the violations committed by the sub-prime loan originators from whom Sovereign obtained the class members’ tainted loans.
Sovereign has now agreed to the terms of a settlement of the claims asserted in all five cases. In order to resolve the claims against Sovereign in all five suits, while leaving intact the claims against all other defendants, the Thompson case has been filed on behalf of all Missouri borrowers whose illegal loans were ultimately acquired by Sovereign. The Thompson case is currently pending in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, and Judge Marco Roldan has recently issued his Order Preliminarily Approving the Class Action Settlement.
The claims asserted against Sovereign in Thompson were originally asserted in the following five class action lawsuits, which remain pending, as claims against other defendants in these cases have yet to be resolved:
Beaver v. First Consumers Mortgage, Inc.
Baker v. Century Financial Group, Inc.
Couch v. SMC Lending, Inc.
Gilmor v. Preferred Credit Corporation
Wong v. Bann-Cor Mortgage, Inc.
In each of these cases, the plaintiffs continue to seek redress, on behalf of all class members, from the remaining defendants. The damages asserted include actual and punitive damages, including repayment of the illegal fees and a return of all interest collected in violation of Missouri law, along with prejudgment interest, attorney’s fees, costs and expenses.
Class Members can see what we currently estimate the amount of their settlement payment to be by accessing the Proposed Distribution Schedule. To access the Proposed Distribution Schedule for your settlement benefit, click here.
September 7, 2012 – The Circuit Court of Jackson County has entered its order giving final approval to the Settlement Agreement reached with Sovereign Bank in Thompson v. Sovereign Bank, N.A.. The order will become final on October 17, 2012, and we anticipate sending distribution checks to Settlement Class Members beginning after that date. This settlement resolves claims and ends the litigation against Sovereign Bank, N.A. in this case and 5 other cases included in the settlement.
Links to Settlement Documents
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