Washington Mutual v. Carr - CP Adams County - July 5, 2006
49 Adams L.J. 17 (CP Adams 2006)
In what the court said was a matter of first impression in the state, it held that Act 91 requires a mortgage holder to give the name and address of a "local" consumer credit counseling agency (CCCA), 35 P.S. 1680.403c(b)(1), which the Pa. Housing Finance Agency has indicated mean as being "for the county" in which the property in located. In the instant case, the mortgagee listing 47 CCCAs but none in the county where the property was located and only five in the neighboring counties comprising south central Pennsylvania.
Citing case law to the effect that Act 91 is meant to protect vulnerable consumers unschooled in the complex world of mortgage foreclosure from the loss of their homes due to ignorance of their rights in a sometimes sharp practice of lenders," the court found the "Bank's cavalier shotgun approach to proving appropriate notice to a mortgagor is insufficient to satisfy the jurisdictional prerequisites provided for in Act 91." The court found that the defect could not be cured by amendment and dismissed the complaint, finding that strict and not just substantial compliance with Act 91 was required, since proper notice under Act 91 is a jurisdictional matter. PHA v. Barbour, 592 A.2d 47, 48 (Pa. Super. 1991). "[L]ack of compliance, even if minimal or inadvertent, denies the Court jurisdiction."
