A class action settlement may affect your rights if you paid Ocwen or PHH a fee to make a mortgage loan payment by telephone, through an interactive voice response telephone system, or through the internet between July 17, 2018 and October 17, 2022.
Important Dates:
Class Counsel’s Fee and Expense Application Deadline:
September 13, 2023
(Bob Casey United States Courthouse, 515 Rusk Avenue, Houston, TX 77002 in Courtroom 9F)
NOTE: The Court has reserved the right to change the date and/or time of the Fairness Hearing, or to continue it, without further notice. If you plan to attend the Fairness Hearing, you should confirm the date and time shortly before travelling to attend the hearing by checking this website or the Court’s Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system at https://www.txs.uscourts.gov/content/cmecf-nextgen.
The Classes include:
All borrowers on residential mortgage loans involving mortgaged property located in the State of Texas who, between July 17, 2018 (the first day of the Class Period) and October 17, 2022 (the last day of the Class Period), paid a Convenience Fee to Ocwen and/or PHH that was not refunded or returned. Excluded from the Settlement Class are (a) borrowers whose loans were included as class loans in the previously approved class action settlement in McWhorter, et al. v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, et al., No. 2:15-cv-01831-MHH, ECF No. 71 at 7 (N.D. Ala. Aug. 1, 2019); (b) all persons who are potential members of the proposed FDCPA settlement class in Morris, et al. v. PHH Mortgage Corp., et al., No. 0:20-cv-60633-RS (S.D. Fla.), whether or not those persons timely and validly exclude themselves from the Morris FDCPA settlement class; (c) borrowers who are or were named plaintiffs in any civil action other than this Action which challenges Convenience Fees charged by a PHH Defendant that was initiated against either PHH Defendant on or before October 31, 2022; (d) the PHH Defendants’ board members and executive level officers; and (e) the federal district and magistrate judges assigned to this Action, along with persons within the third degree of relationship to them.
What are Settlement Class Members getting?
Defendants have agreed to create a Settlement Fund. If the Settlement obtains final approval, the Settlement Fund will be used first to pay any Court-awarded fees and expenses to Class Counsel and service awards to Plaintiffs. Following the payment of any such fees, expenses, and service awards, the remaining balance of the Settlement Fund will be divided and distributed among Plaintiffs and the rest of the Settlement Class Members.
The Settlement Fund shall be $1,300,000. The distributions of the Settlement Fund to Settlement Class Members are called “Individual Allocations.” Individual Allocations to Settlement Class Members will be calculated as follows:
Each Class Loan will receive an Individual Allocation from the Settlement Fund, calculated based on the proportion of retained Convenience Fees paid to either Ocwen or PHH on that Class Loan between July 17, 2018 and October 17, 2022, as compared to the total aggregate amount of all retained Convenience Fees paid during that same time period to either Ocwen or PHH on all Class Loans of all Settlement Class Members. Payments made on Class Loans with multiple borrowers shall be treated as joint payments for purposes of this calculation, such that each Class Loan will be entitled to only one Individual Allocation of the remaining balance of the Settlement Fund. Co-debtors, joint-borrowers, and multiple obligators on a single Class Loan are not entitled to a separate Individual Allocation on the same Class Loan.
The actual amount that each Settlement Class Member will receive as an Individual Allocation will ultimately depend on a variety of factors, including the number and total amount of Convenience Fees paid on each Class Loan and whether and in what amounts the Court will approve any attorneys’ fees and expenses to Class Counsel and service awards to Plaintiffs.
For full details see the full Settlement documents in the Court Documents page of this website.
How can I get a payment?
If you are a member of the Settlement Class, then as long as you do not exclude yourself from the Settlement Class, you will automatically receive an Individual Allocation, and you do not need to take any further action in order to receive that Individual Allocation. If your mailing address has changed since July 17, 2018, however, you may wish to notify the Settlement Administrator of your current mailing address by contacting the Settlement Administrator at 1-800-622-8098 or Poff v. PHH, c/o RG/2 Claims Administration, P.O. Box 59479, Philadelphia, PA 19102-9479. This will help ensure that your Individual Allocation is mailed to the correct address.
What the Settlement Class is giving up?
In return for the relief that Defendants are providing, Settlement Class Members are deemed to have agreed to the following:
Unless you exclude yourself, you will remain in the Settlement Class, and that means that if the Settlement is given final approval and reaches the Final Settlement Date then you:
Release, and by operation of the Final Order and Judgment upon the Final Settlement Date shall have released, all Released Claims against all of the Released Persons, separately and severally. In connection therewith, upon the Final Settlement Date, you (i) shall be deemed to have, and by operation of the Final Order and Judgment shall have, fully, finally, and forever waived, released, relinquished, remised, acquitted, and discharged to the fullest extent permitted by law all Released Claims against each and all of the Released Persons; (ii) shall forever be barred and enjoined from commencing, instituting, prosecuting, or participating in any fashion in any and all claims, causes of action, suits, or any other proceeding in any court of law or equity, arbitration tribunal, or other forum of any kind, directly, representatively, derivatively, or in any other capacity and wherever filed, with respect to any Released Claims against any of the Released Persons; and (iii) shall be deemed to have agreed and covenanted not to sue any of the Released Persons with respect to any Released Claims or to assist any third party in commencing or maintaining any suit against any Released Person related in any way to any Released Claims
What are my other options?
You can exclude yourself: If you do not want to be bound by the Settlement, you must exclude yourself by August 9, 2023. Part 11 of the Notice explains what you need to do to exclude yourself. If you do not exclude yourself, and the Settlement is given final approval by the Court, you will remain a member of the Settlement Class, you will receive your individual allocation of the Settlement Fund, and you will be bound by the Settlement, including the release of claims against Ocwen and PHH.
You can object: You alternatively may object to the Settlement by April 26, 2023. You alternatively may object to the Settlement by August 9, 2023. Part 16 of the Notice explains what you need to do to object to the settlement. The Court will hold a hearing on September 13, 2023 beginning at 2:30 p.m. to consider whether to finally approve the Settlement, as well as any request for attorneys’ fees by class counsel (the “Fairness Hearing”). If you object, Part 20 of the Notice explains how you may ask the Court to speak at the Fairness Hearing. Persons who exclude themselves from the Settlement Class will not be bound and cannot file an objection and cannot speak at the Fairness Hearing.
Opting out of the Settlement
To exclude yourself from the Settlement, you must mail a letter sufficiently in advance to be received by the "Settlement Administrator," RG2, no later than August 9, 2023, saying that you want to be excluded from the Settlement Class.
Your letter must be addressed to:
Poff v. PHH
c/o RG/2 Claims Administration LLC
P.O. Box 59479
Philadelphia, PA 19102-9479
Your letter must:
Objecting to the Settlement
To object to the Settlement, you must file a written statement of objection with the Court no later than August 9, 2023.
Your written objection must:
You may file your written statement of objection in person at, or you may mail it to:
Clerk of the Court
United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas
P.O. Box 61010
Houston, TX 77208
However, if you are represented by your own attorney, your attorney must file your objection through the Court’s Case Management/Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF) system.