Sanguinetti v. CitiMortgage, Inc. et al

Filing 45

Order by Hon. Samuel Conti granting 33 Motion to Dismiss.(sclc2, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 9/11/2013)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 8 United States District Court For the Northern District of California 9 10 GINA SANGUINETTI and GERALD SANGUINETTI, 11 Plaintiffs, 12 13 14 v. CITIMORTGAGE, INC., CITIBANK, N.A., AND DOES 1-10, Defendants. 15 ) Case No. 12-5424 SC ) ) ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO ) DISMISS ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) 16 17 18 I. INTRODUCTION 19 Now before the court is Defendants CitiMortgage, Inc. and 20 Citibank, N.A.'s (collectively "Defendants") motion to dismiss 21 Plaintiffs Gina and Gerald Sanguinetti's ("Plaintiffs") Second 22 Amended Complaint. 23 fully briefed, 24 appropriate for decision without oral argument, Civ. L.R. 7-1(b). 25 For the reasons explained below the Court GRANTS Defendants' motion 26 and DISMISSES this case with prejudice. 27 /// 28 /// ECF Nos. 29 ("SAC"), 33 ("MTD"). The motion is ECF Nos. 34 ("Opp'n"), 35 ("Reply"), and 1 II. BACKGROUND 2 In her first amended complaint, Plaintiff Gina Sanguinetti 3 brought an action against Defendants, claiming that she and her 4 husband had been harmed by Defendants' malicious lending practices. 5 In that complaint, Ms. Sanguinetti claimed that Defendants had 6 misled her into entering an unsustainably expensive adjustable-rate 7 mortgage ("ARM"), despite knowing that her income was below what 8 was reasonable (and in fact falsifying her income information in 9 the lending documents). She also alleged that Defendants did not United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 disclose legally required information or follow proper loan 11 modification proceedings, and that Defendants were under a Consent 12 Judgment that imposed a duty of care and rendered some of 13 Defendants' activities actionably negligent. Defendants contended that Ms. Sanguinetti's first amended 14 15 complaint was impermissibly vague and did not allege sufficient 16 facts as to any claim; that some of her claims were time-barred; 17 and that she had failed to join her husband Gerald Sanguinetti as a 18 necessary plaintiff. 19 dismissed the complaint with leave to amend so that Plaintiffs 20 could add more detail on the following points: the illegality of 21 the mortgage loan, the completion of the loan application, the 22 Consent Judgment, statutes of limitations, the specificity of 23 Defendants' actions, and the joinder of Mr. Sanguinetti. 24 25 ("Order on MTD FAC"). The Court agreed with Defendants and ECF No. Plaintiffs then filed the SAC. 25 The only fact that the parties do not now dispute is that 26 Plaintiffs obtained a second mortgage from CitiMortgage, a CitiBank 27 subsidiary, sometime in March 2008, and later defaulted on it. 28 ¶ 17. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants are alter egos of each 2 SAC 1 other. Id. ¶ 12. 2 Defendants have: 3 (1) provided a loan without providing and disclosing to Plaintiffs, as required under law, the required Truth in Lending Disclosures; (2) failed to provide to Plaintiffs, as required under law, the required disclosure of the Annual Percentage Rate ("APR") to be charged for the loan; (3) failed to provide to Plaintiffs, as required under law, a detailed Good Faith estimate detailing all relevant fees to be charged to Plaintiffs; (4) failed to provide to Plaintiffs, as required under law, a signed original of the Promissory Note relevant to Plaintiffs' loan; and (5) charged an excessive and undisclosed amount in interest charges in violation of law. 4 5 6 7 8 9 United States District Court 10 For the Northern District of California Plaintiffs allege, as background facts, that 11 12 13 SAC ¶ 14. 14 get Plaintiffs to pay excessive fees related to a loan modification 15 or settlement, and that Defendants also insisted that Plaintiffs 16 pay all existing fees and arrears despite knowing Plaintiffs could 17 not afford to do so. 18 facts related to the Court's permitted amendments. 19 MTD FAC at 7-8. 20 Additionally, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants tried to Id. Plaintiffs' SAC also adds an array of See Order on The Court summarizes these facts below. Plaintiffs contend that Defendants, via CitiMortgage acting as 21 Citibank's agent or broker, misled them about the terms of the 22 mortgage loan they received and falsified Plaintiffs' financial 23 information, in order to force Plaintiffs into an ARM, the payments 24 of which would escalate to more than 100 percent of Plaintiffs' 25 income. 26 were incentivized to push as many of these unsustainable loans onto 27 unsophisticated buyers as possible, Defendants simply entered false 28 information about Plaintiffs into their applications, and did not See SAC ¶¶ 14-22. Plaintiffs add that because Defendants 3 1 proceed with due diligence as to Plaintiffs' financial situation. 2 See id. ¶¶ 24-26. 3 make their monthly payments on the mortgage, and they received a 4 Notice of Default on November 15, 2009. Sometime in 2009, Plaintiffs became unable to Id. ¶ 38. Plaintiffs requested a loan modification or settlement from 5 6 Defendants, but they claim that Defendants consistently mismanaged 7 their requests by ignoring them and failing to give them correct 8 paperwork and information. 9 a result of Defendants' negligent and unlawful activities, the Id. ¶¶ 27-28. Plaintiffs claim that as United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 mortgage and deed of trust are illegal and unconscionable, thereby 11 depriving Defendants of the legal capacity to sell Plaintiffs' home 12 or take other action against Plaintiffs based on their default. 13 Id. ¶¶ 29-30. 14 Plaintiffs with a Notice of Trustee Sale on October 3, 2011, though 15 no sale has yet occurred. Nevertheless, Defendant CitiMortgage served Id. ¶ 30. Plaintiffs now clarify, as to their original reference to a 16 17 Consent Judgment, that around April 4, 2012, they learned of a 18 Consent Judgment entered in a case brought against Defendants by 19 the federal government and California as an individual state. 20 ¶ 32. 21 purportedly (i) require Defendants to evaluate all available loan 22 modifications for borrowers like Plaintiffs, and (ii) forbid 23 Defendants from referring eligible borrowers' accounts to 24 foreclosure while applications for loan modification are pending. 25 Id. ¶¶ 34-35.1 26 1 27 28 Id. Plaintiffs quote sections of the Consent Judgment that Plaintiffs claim that they discussed the Consent Plaintiffs did not include the Consent Judgment in any of their filings. Pursuant to a Court Order, ECF No. 43, they filed a copy on August 20, 2013, ECF No. 44 ("Consent Judgment"). Even so, Plaintiffs did not include the actual settlement terms of the Consent Judgment. However, as documents incorporated by reference 4 1 Judgment with Bank of America -- presumably a typo, since that bank 2 is not a defendant in this case -- and confirmed that Defendants 3 were bound by it. 4 Defendants' actions do not comport with the requirements of the 5 Consent Judgment. See ¶ 35. Nevertheless, Plaintiffs claim that From these facts, Plaintiff asserts four causes of action 6 7 against Defendants: (1) quiet title, (2) fraud or negligent 8 misrepresentation, (3) negligence, and (4) unfair, unlawful, and 9 fraudulent business practices under California's Unfair Competition United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 Law ("UCL"), Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq. 11 12 III. LEGAL STANDARD A motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 13 14 12(b)(6) "tests the legal sufficiency of a claim." Navarro v. 15 Block, 250 F.3d 729, 732 (9th Cir. 2001). 16 on the lack of a cognizable legal theory or the absence of 17 sufficient facts alleged under a cognizable legal theory." 18 Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Dep't, 901 F.2d 696, 699 (9th Cir. 19 1988). 20 should assume their veracity and then determine whether they 21 plausibly give rise to an entitlement to relief." 22 Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 679 (2009). 23 must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint 24 is inapplicable to legal conclusions. "Dismissal can be based "When there are well-pleaded factual allegations, a court Ashcroft v. However, "the tenet that a court Threadbare recitals of the 25 26 27 28 into the Plaintiffs' complaint that are also part of the public record, the Court considers the publicly filed settlement terms incorporated by reference here and takes judicial notice of them. Consent Judgment Settlement Terms, United States v. Bank of America Corp., No. 1:12-cv-00361-RMC (D.D.C. Apr. 4, 2012) (ECF No. 12 Ex. 1). 5 1 elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory 2 statements, do not suffice." 3 Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007)). 4 generally "limited to the complaint, materials incorporated into 5 the complaint by reference, and matters of which the court may take 6 judicial notice." 7 540 F.3d 1049, 1061 (9th Cir. 2008) (citing Tellabs, Inc. v. Makor 8 Issues & Rights, Ltd., 551 U.S. 308, 322 (2007)). Id. (citing Bell Atl. Corp. v. The court's review is Metzler Inv. GMBH v. Corinthian Colls., Inc., United States District Court Additionally, allegations of fraud must meet the heightened 10 For the Northern District of California 9 pleading standard of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b), which 11 requires that plaintiffs alleging fraud "must state with 12 particularity the circumstances constituting fraud." 13 Ford Motor Co., 567 F.3d 1120, 1125-27 (9th Cir. 2009). 14 satisfy Rule 9(b), a pleading must identify the who, what, when, 15 where, and how of the misconduct charged, as well as what is false 16 or misleading about the purportedly fraudulent statement, and why 17 it is false." 18 Sys., 637 F.3d 1047, 1055 (9th Cir. 2011) (internal quotation marks 19 and citations omitted). 20 Kearns v. "To United States ex rel Cafasso v. Gen. Dynamics c$ When a motion to dismiss is granted, a district court must 21 decide whether to grant leave to amend. Generally, the Ninth 22 Circuit has a liberal policy favoring amendments and, thus, leave 23 to amend should be freely granted. 24 Freight System, Inc., 957 F.2d 655, 658 (9th Cir. 1992). 25 a court does not need to grant leave to amend in cases where the 26 court determines that permitting a plaintiff to amend would be an 27 exercise in futility. 28 Winery, 829 F.2d 729, 738 (9th Cir. 1987) ("Denial of leave to See, e.g., DeSoto v. Yellow However, See, e.g., Rutman Wine Co. v. E. & J. Gallo 6 1 amend is not an abuse of discretion where the pleadings before the 2 court demonstrate that further amendment would be futile."). 3 4 IV. DISCUSSION 5 A. 6 Plaintiffs' main argument in their SAC is that the loan 7 agreements are unconscionable and therefore void, so Defendants' 8 arguments are precluded and their legal bases for foreclosure are 9 impermissible. Unconscionability Opp'n at 8-10; SAC ¶¶ 16-24. United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 "[U]nconscionability has both a 'procedural' and a 11 'substantive element,' the former focusing on 'oppression' or 12 'surprise' due to unequal bargaining power, the latter on 'overly 13 harsh' or 'one-sided' results." 14 Psychcare Servs., Inc., 24 Cal. 4th 83, 114 (Cal. 2000) (citations 15 omitted). 16 power which results in no real negotiation and 'an absence of 17 meaningful choice.'" Bruni v. Didion, 160 Cal. App. 4th 1272, 1288 18 (Cal. Ct. App. 2008). "'Surprise' involves the extent to which the 19 supposedly agreed-upon terms of the bargain are hidden in a prolix 20 printed form drafted by the party seeking to enforce the disputed 21 terms." 22 on the actual terms of the agreement and evaluates whether they 23 create 'overly harsh' or 'one-sided' results as to 'shock the 24 conscience.'" 25 substantively oppressive the contract term, the less evidence of 26 procedural unconscionability is required to come to the conclusion 27 that the term is unenforceable, and vice versa." Armendariz v. Found. Health "'Oppression' arises from an inequality of bargaining Id. "The substantive element of unconscionability focuses Id. "Both elements must be present, but the more 28 7 Woodside Homes of 1 Cal., Inc. v. Super. Ct., 107 Cal. App. 4th 723, 727 (Cal. Ct. App. 2 2003). 3 Plaintiffs' grounds for unconscionability are essentially that with unfair terms, and presented it to the unsophisticated 6 Plaintiffs on a "take-it-or-leave-it" basis. 7 to Plaintiffs, since Defendants' agent completed the loan documents 8 for them and assured them that the loan documents "accurately 9 reflected what Plaintiffs had been told, what they wanted, and what 10 United States District Court Defendants had overwhelming bargaining power, drafted a contract 5 For the Northern District of California 4 they could afford," the loan agreements are unconscionable because 11 the underlying terms were predatory and contrary to Plaintiffs' 12 wishes and financial means. 13 SAC ¶ 16. According Id. ¶¶ 17-24. Defendants respond that Plaintiffs fail to allege that any of 14 their actual obligations were unclear or surprising on the loan 15 documents' terms, or that any specific terms were substantively 16 unconscionable. 17 Court recognized unconscionability as a claim instead of a defense, 18 it would be governed by California Code of Civil Procedure section 19 339(1)'s catch-all four-year statute of limitations, and would 20 therefore be time-barred because of the more-than-four-year gap 21 between the loan's origination in May 2008 and the present action's 22 filing in September 2012. 23 Reply at 10-11. Defendants add that even if the Plaintiffs' unconscionability argument fails. 24 Unconscionability is a defense, not a cause of action, see Dean 25 Witter Reynolds, Inc. v. Super. Ct., 211 Cal. App. 3d 758, 766 26 (Cal. Ct. App. 1989), so at best Plaintiffs are trying to preempt 27 legal action by Defendants by using unconscionability as a 28 predicate to other claims. This fails because, as Defendants note, 8 1 such a theory of unconscionability would be governed by 2 California's four-year catch-all limitations period, Cal. Code Civ. 3 Proc. § 339(1). 4 procedurally improper, Plaintiffs' unconscionability arguments are 5 also time-barred because they are based on a May 2008 origination 6 date and this case was filed in September 2012. 7 allegations about unconscionability are DISMISSED with prejudice. Therefore, the Court finds that apart from being All of Plaintiffs' 8 B. Plaintiffs' Fraud Claims 9 Plaintiffs again assert claims for fraud and negligent United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 misrepresentation against Defendants, but Defendants raise the 11 threshold argument that both of these claims are time-barred. 12 statute of limitations is three years for a fraud claim, Cal. Code 13 Civ. Proc. § 338(d), and two years for a negligent 14 misrepresentation claim, id. § 339(1). 15 Plaintiffs' fraud-based claims are time-barred because Plaintiffs 16 obtained their mortgage in March 2008 but did not file the instant 17 action until September 14, 2012, and that Plaintiffs have not pled 18 facts to toll the statutes of limitations. 19 Plaintiffs respond that (1) they filed a related action on February 20 17, 2012, earlier than the September date; (2) their 21 unconscionability argument renders the statute of limitations 22 irrelevant; and (3) they could amend to allege equitable tolling 23 should apply because they did not discover that the loan's terms 24 had been misrepresented until May 2009. 25 The Defendants argue that MTD SAC at 4-6. See Opp'n at 3, 10-11. First, the Court finds no facts in the record that the 26 purported February 2012 action is related to this case. At no 27 point do Plaintiffs provide any proof of such relation. Second, as 28 noted above, the Court rejects Plaintiffs' unconscionability 9 1 arguments. Finally, the Court has already granted Plaintiffs leave 2 to amend to allege equitable tolling. 3 They did not do so. 4 negligent misrepresentation claims barred by the relevant statutes 5 of limitations. Order on MTD FAC at 7-8. The Court finds Plaintiffs' fraud and They are therefore DISMISSED with prejudice. 6 C. Negligence 7 Plaintiffs assert a claim for negligence under California 8 Civil Code sections 1714(a) and 3333. The elements of a claim for 9 negligence are (1) a legal duty of care, (2) breach of that duty, United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 (3) proximate or legal cause, and (4) damages. 11 San Mateo, 12 Cal. 4th 913, 917 (Cal. Ct. App. 1996). 12 institutions generally owe no duty of care to borrowers if their 13 involvement in a loan transaction does not exceed their scope as 14 mere lenders of money. 15 231 Cal. App. 3d 1089, 1096 (Cal. Ct. App. 1998). 16 Ladd v. Cnty. of Financial Nymark v. Heart Fed. Savings & Loan Ass'n, The primary dispute as to Plaintiffs' negligence claim 17 concerns whether Defendants owe Plaintiffs a duty of care. 18 Plaintiffs have three theories of why Defendants owe them a special 19 duty of care. 20 First, despite Nymark, Plaintiffs assert that Defendants owed 21 a duty of care under a Consent Judgment between Defendants and the 22 United States of America (including California as an individual 23 state). 24 beneficiaries of the Consent Judgment, Opp'n at 13, and that it 25 both imposes on Defendants a duty to evaluate borrowers for all 26 available loan modification options before initiating foreclosure 27 and forbids Defendants from referring accounts to disclosure while 28 loan modifications are pending, SAC ¶ 33. See SAC ¶ 61. Plaintiffs state that they are third-party 10 Plaintiffs allege that 1 Defendants effectively amended their pre-existing loan agreements 2 with Plaintiffs after the Consent Judgment was entered in April 3 2012, thereby requiring Defendants to act under the Consent 4 Judgment's duty of care even though the loan agreements in this 5 case were entered in May 2008. See Opp'n at 12-14. Second, Plaintiffs contend that even under Nymark, Defendants 6 7 act beyond the role of "mere lenders of money" and therefore assume 8 a duty of care that they would otherwise not have. Opp'n at 13. United States District Court Third, Plaintiffs add in their opposition brief that 10 For the Northern District of California 9 Defendants operate under a statutory duty of care per the 11 California Homeowners Bill of Rights, California Civil Code 12 sections 2923.5 et seq. 13 2924.17, and 2924.18 provide the relevant statutory duties of care 14 in this case. 15 mortgage servicers seeking to send borrowers notices of default. 16 Section 2924.17 prohibits "robo-signing," or executing foreclosure 17 documents without "substantiat[ing] the borrower's default and the 18 right to foreclose." 19 which is the initiation of foreclosure proceedings while evaluation 20 of a borrower's loan modification application is ongoing. According to Plaintiffs, sections 2923.5, Section 2923.5 sets out detailed requirements for Section 2924.18 prohibits dual-tracking, The Court finds all of Plaintiffs' arguments unpersuasive. 21 22 Regarding Plaintiffs' first theory, "[c]onsent decrees are 23 construed as contracts for purposes of enforcement," and "under 24 Ninth Circuit precedent, incidental third-party beneficiaries may 25 not enforce consent decrees, but intended third-party beneficiaries 26 may." 27 2008) (citing Hook v. Az. Dep't of Corrections, 972 F.2d 1012, 28 1014-15 (9th Cir. 1992)). United States v. FMC Corp., 531 F.3d 813, 819-20 (9th Cir. When the government is the plaintiff, 11 1 third-party beneficiaries of a consent judgment are presumptively 2 incidental beneficiaries absent a clear expression in the consent 3 decree that individual members of the public can enforce the 4 agreement. 5 Ass'n v. Patterson, 204 F.3d 1206, 1211 (9th Cir. 1999). 6 clear intent must appear in the consent decree's precise language. 7 Cnty. of Santa Clara v. Astra USA, Inc., 588 F.3d 1237, 1244 (9th 8 Cir. 2009), rev'd on other grounds by Astra USA, Inc. v. Santa 9 Clara Cnty., Cal., 131 S. Ct. 1342 (2011). United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 Id. at 821; see also Klamath Water Users Protective Such The Consent Judgment's enforcement provisions never reference 11 the possibility of an enforcement proceeding being brought by an 12 individual borrower as a third-party beneficiary. 13 allow enforcement actions to be brought by parties to the Consent 14 Judgment or by the monitoring committee that the Consent Judgment 15 establishes. 16 Settlement Terms. 17 precise language does not establish "a clear intent to rebut the 18 presumption that the third parties [to the Consent Judgment] are 19 merely incidental beneficiaries." 20 The Consent Judgment does not provide a basis for Plaintiffs' 21 claims. 22 Instead they See Consent Judgment at 18-20, 22; see generally The Court therefore finds that the decree's Astra USA, 588 F.3d at 1244. Second, Plaintiffs argue that despite Nymark, the Consent 23 Judgment makes it clear that Defendants have adopted a separate 24 standard of care and are acting not as mere lenders but as some 25 other kind of entity that entitles Plaintiffs to a negligence claim 26 based on the loan modification proceedings. 27 support of this contention, Plaintiffs cite Ansanelli v. JP Morgan 28 Chase Bank, N.A., No. C 10-3892, 2011 WL 1134451 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 12 Opp'n at 13. In 1 28, 2011). 2 beyond its role as silent lender and loan servicer when it offered 3 a loan modification and trial modification plan, the bank assumed a 4 duty of care that it would otherwise lack under Nymark. 5 The Court finds that reasoning unpersuasive. 6 are part of the lending process, and negotiating a lending 7 agreement's terms is one of a bank's key functions. 8 v. Chevy Chase Bank, FSB, No. 5:11-cv-05664 EJD, 2012 WL 4747165, 9 at *4 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 3, 2012). United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 11 In that case, the court held that because a bank went Id. at *7. Loan modifications See Armstrong The Court therefore finds that this theory of the duty of care also fails. Finally, Plaintiffs' theories of why Defendants have a duty of 12 care under the California Homeowners Bill of Rights is newly 13 asserted in the opposition brief. 14 complaint. 15 Plaintiffs' theory is futile because the statutes Plaintiffs cite 16 were enacted in 2013, and absent express provision to the contrary, 17 California statutes are not presumed to act retroactively. 18 v. Philip Morris Cos., Inc., 28 Cal. 4th 828, 840-41 (Cal. 2002). 19 They do not apply to Plaintiffs' claims. 20 It was not pled in the Amendment might be warranted in such a case, but Myers The Court therefore finds that Plaintiffs have not pled a 21 claim for negligence and DISMISSES this claim. Since the Court 22 previously gave Plaintiffs leave to amend on this point, the 23 dismissal is with prejudice. 24 D. Quiet Title 25 The purpose of a quiet title action is to settle all 26 conflicting claims to a piece of real property and to declare each 27 interest or estate to which the parties are entitled. 28 Cornelius, 3 Cal. App. 3d 279, 284 (Cal. Ct. App. 1970). 13 Newman v. "A quiet 1 title action must include: (1) a description of the property in 2 question; (2) the basis for plaintiff's title; and (3) the adverse 3 claims to plaintiff's title." 4 C 12–2275 SI, 2012 WL 4099568, at *3 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 17, 2012) 5 (citing Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 760.020). 6 second requirement, plaintiff must allege that he has discharged 7 his debt, regardless to whom it is owed." 8 Mort. Elec. Registration Sys., Inc., 642 F. Supp. 2d 1048, 1057 9 (N.D. Cal. 2009)). Ananiev v. Aurora Loan Servs., LLC, "In order to satisfy the Id. (citing Kelley v. United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 Defendants argue that Plaintiffs fail to state a claim for 11 quiet title, mainly because they have not discharged their debt 12 and, in any event, Plaintiffs' unconscionability allegations must 13 fail. 14 argument. 15 title claim is DISMISSED. 16 the Court gave Plaintiffs leave to amend this claim to make it 17 colorable, and Plaintiffs failed to do so. MTD SAC at 14-15. Plaintiffs do not dispute Defendants' The Court agrees with Defendants. Plaintiffs' quiet The dismissal is with prejudice since 18 E. UCL 19 The UCL prohibits unfair competition, including, inter alia, 20 "any unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act." 21 Prof. Code § 17200. 22 disjunctive, it establishes three varieties of unfair competition - 23 - acts or practices which are unlawful, or unfair, or fraudulent." 24 Berryman v. Merit Prop. Mgmt., Inc., 152 Cal. App. 4th 1544, 1554 25 (Cal. Ct. App. 2007). 26 Cal. Bus. & "Because [section 17200] is written in the Plaintiffs are not very precise about the nature of their UCL 27 claim, but their opposition brief states that they rely on their 28 allegations of unconscionability and the Homeowners Bill of Rights' 14 1 bar against "dual-tracking" as predicate offenses. See Opp'n at 2 14. 3 prong, which allows plaintiffs to "borrow" from violations of 4 underlying laws. 5 a UCL violation because the Homeowners' Bill of Rights does not 6 operate retroactively. These allegations would suit a claim under the unlawfulness As noted above, these are insufficient bases for However, Plaintiffs' complaint includes several other bases 7 8 for their UCL claim. First, under the unfairness prong, the 9 allegations that Defendants failed to undertake loan servicing and United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 modification properly, as when they steered Plaintiffs toward an 11 unpayable loan and unfairly kept Plaintiffs circulating through a 12 temporary modification process. 13 allege violations of the UCL's fraud prong. 14 Defendants' misrepresentations and omissions regarding Plaintiffs' 15 payment capacity and the loan's modification process are likely to 16 deceive reasonable consumers. SAC ¶ 75. Second, Plaintiffs Plaintiffs plead that SAC ¶ 77. 17 Plaintiffs' pleadings under these prongs fail to cure the 18 defects of their first amended complaint: Plaintiffs simply do not 19 provide precise enough facts to state claims under the UCL. 20 provide a list of conclusory allegations, see SAC ¶¶ 75-78, but 21 they do not support these allegations with facts elsewhere in their 22 pleadings. 23 problems, but they failed to do so. 24 DISMISSED with prejudice. 25 /// 26 /// 27 /// 28 /// They The Court gave Plaintiffs an opportunity to cure these 15 Plaintiffs' UCL claim is 1 2 V. CONCLUSION For the reasons explained above, Defendants CitiBank, N.A., 3 and CitiMortgage, Inc.'s motion to dismiss Plaintiff Gina 4 Sanguinetti's First Amended Complaint is GRANTED. 5 complaint is DISMISSED with prejudice. Plaintiffs' 6 7 IT IS SO ORDERED. 8 9 Dated: September 11, 2013 United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 16

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