The Pennington v. Wells Fargo proposed class action claims that a lender can't lower a Texas home equity borrower's monthly payments without forgiving the arrears that build up, since doing so creates a pool of unpaid interest that can't be added back into the loan (which is what happened in the other class actions I have filed, where the borrowers indisputably got "modifications" that increased the Texas home equity loan principal). In Pennington, the plaintiffs got temporary payment plans (HAMP program agreements), but the Plaintiffs assert that when Wells Fargo finally figured out that the interest arrears caused by the HAMP payment plans couldn't legally be added back into the loan without a Texas Const. Art. XVI Section 50(a)(6) refinance, Wells Fargo didn't forgive the arrears it had created with the reduced payments, as it should have done: it just cut the plaintiffs off from a permanent modification and demanded they catch up immediately. Thus, having drawn the plaintiffs into arrears that could never have been added back into the loan because of the way Section 50 works, Wells Fargo set the plaintiffs up for foreclosure, Plaintiffs allege.

Oral argument is scheduled in New Orleans with the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on September 5, 2012.