WASHINGTON, May 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on
Thursday made it harder for home buyers to sue mortgage lenders
for certain overcharges at settlement, limiting the reach of a
provision of a 1974 federal law on real estate settlement
procedures.
The Supreme Court's unanimous ruling was a defeat for three
couples in Louisiana, who claimed that Quicken Loans overcharged
them as much as $1,100 at their mortgage closings for a "loan
discount" or "processing" fee. The borrowers claimed they
received nothing for the fee.
The Detroit-based privately held company has denied charging
unearned fees in the three residential mortgage loans in 2007,
and has said it never will charge such fees. It has said the
claims in the lawsuit were baseless.
The opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, upheld an
appeals court decision for Quicken in the dispute.
At issue was a provision in the law that generally barred
lenders for collecting fees for settlement services they do not
perform. Scalia said the provision only applied when a
settlement service provider split the fee with another party in
the transaction.
The American Bankers Association, the National Association
of Realtors, title companies and other settlement service
providers supported Quicken before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court case is Freeman v. Quicken Loans, No.
10-1042.
For Freeman: Kevin Russell of Goldstein & Russell.
For Quicken Loans: Thomas Hefferon of Goodwin Procter.
(Reporting By James Vicini)
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