I recently had a nice win in the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals against JP Morgan Chase Bank in a mortgage modification case. The federal district court's dismissal was reversed, and the case remanded to proceed to discovery. The opinion in Gloria Martin-Janson v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., is here.

My client was promised a modification for years and was repeatedly told not to make payments because a modification was imminent. At the last minute, Chase pulled the plug and said, basically, catch up all the missed payments or we foreclose. My client merely asked the district court to let her prove that Chase either had written up a modification or that it was possible to prove what the terms of the modification were. The district court dismissed, denying her the ability to prove her case. The 5th Circuit reversed so that my client can at least get discovery.

This case stands for the proposition that when a federal lawsuit alleges very specifically that a particular modification agreement exists in the lender's file or can be proven by evidence, the case should proceed and not be dismissed immediately after it's filed.