United States Ninth Circuit

In an action claiming that defendant improperly paid millions of dollars to individual title companies and, in exchange, those title companies entered into exclusive referral agreements with defendant, a denial of defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint is affirmed where the text of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act did not limit liability to instances in which a plaintiff was overcharged.

Appellate Information

• Argued 02/04/2010
• Decided 06/21/2010
• Published 06/21/2010

Judges

• Before BETTY B. FLETCHER, HARRY PREGERSON, and SUSAN P. GRABER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Cyril V. Smith, Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, Baltimore, MD, and James W. Spertus, Law Offices of James Spertus, Los Angeles, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant., Gregory W. Happ, Medina, OH, and Mary Dryovage, Law Offices of Mary Dryovage, San Francisco, CA, for amicus curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• Richard M. Zuckerman, New York, NY, and Charles A. Newman, St. Louis, MO, for the defendants-appellees.