Supreme Court Orders 4th Circuit to Reconsider Affirmance of $9.7 Million Judgment

The Supreme Court recently ordered the Fourth Circuit to reconsider its ruling affirming the conditional certification of a class of thousands of home mortgage refinance applicants and summary judgment in their favor, allowing each class member to recover $3,500 in statutory damages.  The plaintiffs claimed that a mortgage company unlawfully pressured appraisers to increase the value of their appraisals by providing borrowers’ estimates of their homes’ value on appraisal request forms.  

This order follows the Supreme Court’s ruling clarifying that every class member must be harmed by an alleged statutory violation to have constitutional standing to bring such class claims, which WBK covered here.  The mortgage company argued that the Fourth Circuit’s ruling could not stand in light of the decision.  The Supreme Court granted the mortgage company’s petition “for further consideration in light of” the Supreme Court’s previous ruling, but provided no further analysis.