New Jersey Attorney Law Review Blog

In a July 31, 2014 unpublished decision, a Bergen County judge fined a mortgage lender $26,125 in legal fees for duping a 70-year old borrower into a refinance transaction that benefited only the lender.   Finding that the lender committed an unconscionable commercial practice by charging the borrower over $11,000 in mortgage closing costs that would have taken her 5+ years to recoup based on the paltry savings of $63/month from her monthly mortgage payment, the Court chastised the lender for acting in its own self-interest. A more detailed analysis about this case appears on our website blog: http://njlawconnect.com/litigation/bergen-county-chancery-judge-hits-mortgage-lender-with-26000-in-counsel-fees-for-violating-new-jersey-consumer-fraud-act/

A bank employee who misappropriates a customer's cash deposit can expose the bank to a claim under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, a NJ appeals court ruled in Lee v. First Union National Bank, et al. , App. Div., Case No.: 09-2-1547. In this case, the plaintiff, an existing customer of First Union National Bank, alleged she paid $2,000 in cash to a bank employee who worked in the bank's brokerage services unit which was supposed to be used to purchase shares of a mutual fund. Instead of depositing these funds into her brokerage account, the plaintiff claimed the bank's employee misappropriated her $2,000 cash tender for his own personal use which resulted in an overdraft in her checking account. The bank covered the shortfall by taking money from plaintiff's checking account and liquidating some of the mutual fund shares. Plaintiff's complaint alleged violation of the Consumer Fraud Act (CFA) and common-law conversion. The trial judge granted summary judgment in ...