The movement sought to increase Mutual of Omaha’s time to reply to Longbridge’s transfer for a preliminary injunction to March 28; to push a listening to date on the movement from March 14 to April 14; to grant a movement by Longbridge to file an “oversize” movement; and to permit Mutual of Omaha and different case defendants the chance to match Longbridge’s web page depend in its personal response supplies.
All requests have been granted by Choose Dana Sabraw earlier this week.
Mutual of Omaha and its co-defendants mentioned within the submitting that they intend to name their very own skilled witness to supply “rebuttal testimony” to materials from a witness retained by Longbridge, who provided an expert opinion on the veracity of the allegations.
However organizing a substantive response will take further time, and all events agreed that it was prudent to increase the deadlines within the case to permit for it. Sabraw agreed, saying “good trigger” had been proven for the requests.
The filings additionally indicated that the 2 lenders are persevering with to dialogue in “meet and confer discussions.” Beneath California regulation, this requires a “cheap and good religion try at an off-the-cuff decision of every problem” throughout the discovery course of, in keeping with the California Attorneys Affiliation.
The complexity of those discussions typically must “replicate the identical stage of persuasive effort as the invention movement itself,” the affiliation mentioned.
Longbridge initially filed the lawsuit in September 2024, alleging that web sites it claims are maintained by Mutual of Omaha are each misleading and in violation of the Actual Property Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) in addition to steerage from the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC).
A December submitting within the case additionally indicated that discussions are ongoing relating to a possible settlement that might keep away from a trial altogether. Attorneys for Mutual of Omaha acknowledged that each corporations have been on the level within the opening phases of negotiations for an finish to the authorized dispute that might occur previous to a jury trial.
Neither get together has provided an replace since then on how or if these negotiations are progressing. Final month, Mutual of Omaha filed a countersuit towards Longbridge, denying allegations that it misled potential clients whereas demanding a jury trial.
Mutual of Omaha additionally referred to as for litigation to find out financial losses inflicted upon it because of its accusation that Longbridge “is participating in a focused effort to intrude with [Mutual’s] advertising and marketing and enterprise improvement, in an try and disrupt [Mutual’s] enterprise and unfairly favor itself.”
In its preliminary injunction submitting, Longbridge contends that the web sites at problem exist “solely to advertise Mutual” by giving it “artificially inflated scores” compared to different reverse mortgage corporations. Longbridge claims that Mutual “conceded these web sites are fatally misleading,” in keeping with filings.