Ocwen once again victorious over CFPB in federal court

A federal judge in Florida has once again granted Ocwen Financial a victory over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, apparently bringing a long-running case to a close.

Judge Kenneth Marra first granted Ocwen summary judgment in May 2021, but the CFPB appealed. In April 2022,  the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ordered him to do a count-by-count analysis of the nine remaining claims raised.

Ocwen's ongoing defense to the claims that were first raised in 2017 by the CFPB — a case 30 state attorneys general and regulators eventually joined — was that they were covered by the National Mortgage Settlement and that the Bureau's actions constituted a form of double jeopardy known in legal terms as res judicata.

"The Court's claim-by-claim analysis leads it to the conclusion that the NMS Servicing Standards and Metrics preclude, based on res judicata, all of the claims asserted," Judge Marra wrote in his latest ruling, issued on May 2.

As a result, Marra ordered that "the clerk shall close this case," in an accompanying document. This was actually the third time Marra threw the case out, the first being in 2019, but he allowed the CFPB to refile.

The CFPB was the sole remaining party in this action as Ocwen settled with all of the other entities. Part of the various state settlements called for Ocwen to switch its mortgage servicing platform away from a unit of Altisource, which was accomplished via the purchase of PHH.

"We are pleased that the district court has ruled in our favor, acknowledging that the CFPB cannot unilaterally ignore the provisions of a prior settlement agreement," Ocwen said in a press release. "Throughout this litigation we have remained steadfast in our belief that the CFPB's claims regarding Ocwen's past servicing practices were without merit."

If the CFPB again elects to appeal Judge Marra's ruling, the West Palm Beach, Florida-based company will "continue to vigorously defend itself," the statement continued.

The CFPB has not yet responded to a request for comment.