More on Caliber Home Loans and LSF9 Master Participation Trust – Beckwith vs. Caliber Home Loans

I ran across a 2015 court case from the United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Beckwith vs. Caliber Home Loans et al.  This is a case where a borrower whose mortgage had been assigned to LSF9 Master Participation Trust (serviced by Caliber Home Loans) sued Caliber and those up the chain of ownership alleging a bunch of theories of liability including breach of contract and Truth In Lending Act violations.  The originating bank filed a demand for arbitration. There was an arbitration clause in the contract.  The borrower claimed that the Dodd Frank Act applies which bars arbitration clauses in home mortgage contracts but which wasn’t passed until after this loan was executed.  The court held that the original lender gets to hide behind the arbitration clause because as a general rule statutes passed after contracts are executed can’t change the terms of the contract; however, because Caliber was not a party to the contract, Caliber can’t hide behind the arbitration provision.   This case might be useful to anyone litigating against Caliber in the future.  (It is only binding authority in the Northern District of Alabama, but the reasoning is about what I would have expected.)