Margaret C. Renfroev.Nationstar Mortgage, LLC
Margaret Renfroe sued Nationstar Mortgage under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, alleging that the servicer failed to provide an adequate response to her qualified written request and caused financial harm. The district court dismissed the action after relying on Nationstar’s descriptions of documents and its explanations of the response, even though those materials were not properly part of the record at the pleading stage. The Eleventh Circuit reversed and remanded. It held that Renfroe adequately pleaded a statutory violation and both actual and statutory damages. A motion to dismiss tests the allegations in the complaint, not factual assertions outside the pleadings or unsupported conclusions supplied by the defendant. The court also held that Renfroe sufficiently alleged a causal connection between the deficient response and mortgage overpayments. Because the complaint stated a claim under the statute, the district court could not dismiss it by requiring details that discovery might establish. The judgment was reversed and the case returned for further proceedings.
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