REFinBlog

Editor: David Reiss
Cornell Law School

April 9, 2013

No News to Report on Preemption

By David Reiss

The Fourth Circuit recently reversed a dismissal of a fraud claim in McCauley v. Home Loan Investment  Bank, F.S.B.; Deutsche Bank National Trust Company. The main issue on appeal was whether the Home Owners’ Loan Act preempted the homeowner’s state law  claims arising from a mortgage originated by a federal savings association. While the court affirmed the dismissal of the unconscionability claim as preempted by HOLA, it held that the fraud claim “only incidentally affects lending, it is not preempted by HOLA or its implementing regulation . . ..” (12-13)

As to the unconscionability claim, the court found that McCauley “in essence asks us to impose new, substantive requirements on mortgage lenders.” (10) But as to the fraud claim, the court found that HOLA and its implementing regulation were not intended to “preempt state laws that establish the basic norms that undergird commercial transactions.” (7, citation omitted)  McCauley does not blaze a new path on preemption, but it is consistent with a number of recent decisions that refuse to broadly preempt state consumer protection laws, a welcome trend.

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