Rothstein v. Balboa Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 22 July 2015
• Docket Number: Docket No. 14–2250–cv.
• Citation: 794 F.3d 256
• Parties: Landon ROTHSTEIN, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Robert Davidson, Ihor Kobryn, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Jennifer Davidson, Plaintiffs–Appellees, v. BALBOA INSURANCE COMPANY, Newport Management Corporation, MeritPlan Insurance Company, Defendants–Appellants, GMAC Mortgage, LLC, f/k/a GMAC Mortgage Corporation, GMAC Insurance Marketing, Inc., d/b/a GMAC Agency Marketing, John Does 1–20, Ally Financial, Inc., f/k/a GMAC, Inc., Ally Bank, f/k/a GMAC Bank, John Doe Corporation, Praetorian Insurance Company, QBE First Insurance Agency, Inc., QBE Insurance Corporation, QBE Specialty Insurance Company, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

794 F.3d 256

Landon ROTHSTEIN, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Robert Davidson, Ihor Kobryn, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Jennifer Davidson, Plaintiffs–Appellees

v. BALBOA INSURANCE COMPANY, Newport Management Corporation, MeritPlan Insurance Company, Defendants–AppellantsGMAC Mortgage, LLC, f/k/a GMAC Mortgage Corporation, GMAC Insurance Marketing, Inc., d/b/a GMAC Agency Marketing, John Does 1–20, Ally Financial, Inc., f/k/a GMAC, Inc., Ally Bank, f/k/a GMAC Bank, John Doe Corporation, Praetorian Insurance Company, QBE First Insurance Agency, Inc., QBE Insurance Corporation, QBE Specialty Insurance Company, Defendants.

Docket No. 14–2250–cv.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: May 1, 2015.

Decided: July 22, 2015.

Ross E. Morrison (Robyn C. Quattrone and Katherine L. Halliday, BuckleySandler LLP, Washington, D.C., John C. Englander, Goodwin Procter LLP, Boston, MA, Brian T. Burgess, Goodwin Procter LLP, Washington, D.C., on the brief), BuckleySandler LLP, New York, New York, for Defendants–Appellants.

Mark A. Strauss (Thomas W. Elrod, on the brief), Kirby McInerney LLP, New York, New York, for Plaintiffs–Appellees.

Frank G. Burt, Denise A. Fee, W. Glenn Merten, and Brian P. Perryman, Carlton Fields Jorden Burt, P.A., Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae American Security Insurance Company.

Before: JACOBS, HALL, and LYNCH, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

DENNIS JACOBS, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs are borrowers who failed to purchase hazard insurance on their mortgaged properties, as required by the terms of their loan agreements. Their loan servicer, GMAC Mortgage LLC (“GMAC”), bought lender-placed insurance (“LPI”) from Balboa Insurance Company and MeritPlan Insurance Company (together, “Balboa”) at rates that were approved by regulators. GMAC then sought reimbursement from Plaintiffs at those same rates.

Plaintiffs allege that they were fraudulently overbilled because the rates they were charged did not reflect secret “rebates” and “kickbacks” that GMAC received from Balboa through Balboa's affiliate, Newport Management Corporation (“Newport”). They sued GMAC and various affiliates, Balboa, and Newport in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Nathan, J.), alleging, inter alia, claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”). The claims against all defendants except Balboa and Newport were settled.

Balboa and Newport moved to dismiss under the filed rate doctrine, arguing that Plaintiffs could not sue to challenge LPI rates approved by regulators. The district court denied the motion in relevant part, reasoning that although Balboa received regulatory approval for the LPI rates it charged to GMAC, that approval did not necessarily extend to the borrowers' reimbursement to GMAC. Noting a conflict of authority on this issue, the court certified its decision for interlocutory appeal.

We hold that a claim challenging a regulator-approved rate is subject to the filed rate doctrine whether or not the rate is passed through an intermediary. The claim is therefore barred if it would undermine the regulator's rate-setting authority or operate to give the suing ratepayer a preferential rate. Applying this analysis, we conclude that Plaintiffs' claims are barred and, accordingly, reverse and remand for dismissal of the case.

BACKGROUND

The purchase of residential property is often financed through a mortgage loan secured by the subject property. Until repayment of the loan, the lender holds a security interest in the property (i.e., the mortgage) in the unpaid amount. To mitigate the risk that the mortgaged property will be damaged or destroyed before the loan is repaid, the lender can require the borrower to maintain hazard insurance sufficient to cover the lender's interest.

In a typical mortgage loan arrangement, if the borrower fails to maintain adequate hazard insurance, the lender can purchase insurance on the borrower's behalf and then seek reimbursement from the borrower. Such lender-placed insurance, or LPI, can be more expensive than ordinary hazard insurance and does not necessarily cover the borrower's interest in the property.

Lenders seldom hold or manage individual mortgage loans. Such loans are typically securitized through the transfer of title to a trust that pools the loans together and issues securities backed by the mortgages in the pool (“residential mortgage-backed securities”). The trust also contracts with a loan servicer, such as GMAC, to service the loans on a day-to-day basis. Among other responsibilities, the servicer must ensure that borrowers maintain contractually required hazard insurance and, if necessary, the servicer must purchase LPI from an insurer, such as Balboa.

Plaintiffs' residential properties in Texas, New Hampshire, and New York were financed with mortgage loans serviced by GMAC. Plaintiffs each signed a loan agreement requiring hazard insurance on the mortgaged property and warning that the lender would be entitled to purchase LPI if hazard insurance was not maintained. Plaintiff Landon Rothstein's agreement was typical:

Borrower shall keep ... the Property insured against loss by fire, hazards included within the term “extended coverage,” and any other hazards ... for which Lender requires insurance....

If Borrower fails to maintain any of the coverages described above, Lender may obtain insurance coverage, at Lender's option and Borrower's expense.... [S]uch coverage shall cover Lender, but might or might not protect Borrower, Borrower's equity in the Property, or the contents of the Property, against any risk, hazard or liability and might provide greater or lesser coverage than was previously in effect....

Second Am. Compl. ¶ 48 (emphasis omitted).

Plaintiffs failed to maintain adequate hazard insurance. Consequently, GMAC acquired LPI from Balboa. Before and after the acquisition of LPI, Plaintiffs were advised in writing that they would be required to reimburse GMAC for the cost of LPI. GMAC bought LPI from Balboa at rates approved by state insurance regulators.¹ See Tex. Ins.Code § 2251.152; N.H.Rev.Stat. § 412:16(XII) ; N.Y. Ins. Law. § 2314. GMAC then sought reimbursement from Plaintiffs at those same rates.

Plaintiffs allege that the amounts billed by GMAC were inflated because they did not reflect hidden “rebates” that GMAC received from Balboa through a “kickback scheme.” Second Am. Compl. ¶¶ 67–72. The alleged scheme is that GMAC agreed to buy LPI exclusively from Balboa and, in return, Balboa agreed to provide GMAC with loan tracking services through an affiliate, Newport. The services performed by Newport—including the identification of borrowers who defaulted on the duty to obtain hazard insurance—offset GMAC's expenses by relieving GMAC of the obligation to do those things itself. Because Balboa provided Newport's services as a quid pro quo for GMAC's LPI business, Plaintiffs characterize Newport's services as, in effect, a discount on LPI from the filed rates approved by regulators. Since GMAC still billed Plaintiffs at the filed rates, it retained for itself the entire benefit of that discount.

In April 2012, Plaintiffs filed a complaint against GMAC and affiliated entities, Balboa, and Newport, on behalf of a putative class of mortgage loan borrowers who were charged for LPI by GMAC. When GMAC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a month later, Plaintiffs withdrew their suit as to GMAC and filed claims in bankruptcy. Plaintiffs and GMAC later reached a settlement in principle resolving claims against GMAC (and certain affiliates) in exchange for a $13 million unsecured claim in favor of Plaintiffs and the putative class in the bankruptcy. Only the claims against Balboa and Newport are at issue in this appeal.

The relevant complaint—the Second Amended Complaint filed in January 2013—alleges substantive and conspiracy claims under RICO based on predicate acts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and extortion, as well as a RESPA claim.² Balboa and Newport moved to dismiss, arguing that the claims were barred by the filed rate doctrine and, moreover, inadequately pleaded.

The district court granted the motion in part and denied it in part. The court: (1) rejected the argument that the filed rate doctrine barred the claims, (2) concluded that the RICO claims were adequately pleaded, and (3) dismissed the RESPA claim as inadequately pleaded. Rothstein v. GMAC Mortg., LLC, No. 12 Civ. 3412(AJN), 2013 WL 5437648, at *20 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2013). The court concluded that the filed rate doctrine did not apply because Plaintiffs were not direct customers of the rate filer, Balboa. Id. at *6–9. It observed, however, that the issue was a close call and that there was no direct case law in this circuit and conflicting authority elsewhere. Id.; see also Rothstein v. GMAC Mortg., LLC, No. 12 Civ. 3412(AJN), 2014 WL 1329132, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 3, 2014).

Balboa and Newport's motion for interlocutory appeal was granted.³ The principal issue on appeal—and the only issue we decide—is whether the filed rate doctrine bars Plaintiffs' claims.

DISCUSSION

We review de novo the denial of a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6). Woods v. Rondout Valley Cent. Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., 466 F.3d 232, 235 (2d Cir.2006).

I

Under the filed rate doctrine, “any ‘filed rate’—that is, one approved by the governing regulatory agency—is per se reasonable and unassailable in judicial proceedings brought by ratepayers.” Wegoland Ltd. v. NYNEX Corp., 27 F.3d 17, 18 (2d Cir.1994). The doctrine is grounded on two rationales: first, that courts should not “undermine[ ] agency rate-making authority” by upsetting approved rates (the principle of “nonjusticiability”); and, second, that litigation should not become a means for certain ratepayers to obtain preferential rates (the principle of “nondiscrimination”). Marcus v. AT & T Corp., 138 F.3d 46, 58,...