Morris

I. BACKGROUND

A. Initial Complaint Morris filed her initial complaint against Chase, Rushmore, and U.S. Bank in November 2017. Since the allegations that she later made by amendment are important to our analysis, we begin by placing the amendments in context against a baseline recitation of the facts as originally pleaded, read together with the exhibits attached to the complaint, and with various publicly filed documents that were judicially noticed at the defendants’ request. In October 2005, Morris borrowed $934,500 from Washington Mutual Bank, F.A. (WaMu) secured by a deed of trust on her home in Lafayette. This was a refinance of a prior $535,000 loan with WaMu taken out in 1993. With her late husband, Morris lived in the home as a primary residence beginning in 1993. Morris legally changed her name in February 2005 from Shams Azar Tehrani Mazhari, which is the name shown on the title documents to the home. Over the course of the next decade, Morris defaulted; obtained a loan modification from WaMu, defaulted again, and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy twice, preventing foreclosure while the bankruptcies were pending; WaMu went into receivership and assigned Morris’s mortgage…