Home Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Superior Court

Home Savings and Loan Association, defendant in six class actions coordinated for trial pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 404, seeks to prohibit the superior court from adjudicating issues by means of summary judgment and from granting preliminary injunctive relief prior to certification and notification of the six classes.

Five class actions, Deutsch, Garcia, Bolen, Heavin and Weinberg, seek damages and a declaration of the invalidity in Home’s loan agreements of late-payment charges, some at 2 percent per year on the unpaid balance of the loan during the period of default, others at 10 percent of the amount of the late payment. Three class actions, Lustig, Bolen and Heavin, seek damages and a declaration of the invalidity of Home’s unilateral reduction of the grace period for late payments from 30 days to 10 days.

The named plaintiffs in Deutsch, Bolen, Heavin, and Weinberg, on behalf of themselves and their classes, moved under captions of summary judgment, partial summary judgment, and specification of issues without substantial controversy, for a declaration as a matter of law that under Civil Code section 1670 Home’s late-payment charges are void, that…