The earlier class certification for a lawsuit in Ohio over Rocket Mortgage's late recording fees was reversed after the Ohio Supreme Court overrode a lower court's favorable ruling for borrowers.

The case stems from a homeowner's pursuit of a $250 fine from the lender, over its late recording of the release of his mortgage in 2020. While state law requires the lender to pay such late fees, the sides had argued over the case's class action status which is complicated by a 2023 amendment to the statute. 

Lawmakers had inserted language prohibiting plaintiffs from collecting the late filing fees from lenders via a class action for violations which occurred specifically in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic affected state office operations, and Rocket that year recorded borrower Samuel Voss' payoff in May 2020, 22 days after a 90-day deadline to do so. 

An Ohio trial court granted Voss' motion to certify a class in February 2023, reasoning that the class action prohibition was not yet in effect. Defendants Rocket and the Mortgage Electronic Verification System appealed, and the case rose to the state's highest court after the appeals court upheld the lower court's ruling. 

In a 6-1 decision by the Ohio Supreme Court this week, following an oral argument last March, the justices ordered the trial court to decertify the class. They ruled the appellate court was correct in awarding Voss his $250 fee, but had incorrectly ruled on the class action as the ban should have been considered in effect.

The ruling was first reported by Bloomberg Law.

The prospective class would have covered 1,476 borrowers who received late filings from the lender between 2014 and 2020. The case briefly sat in federal court before it was remanded back to Ohio, and Rocket had also lost a motion for summary judgment against Voss. 

An attorney for Rocket deferred comment to the company which didn't respond Friday. An attorney for Voss didn't respond to a request for comment. 

Rocket's other pending lawsuits

Other lawsuits Rocket faces range from cases filed by individual defendants over issues  like repurchase agreements and alleged spam phone calls to other attempts to get larger class actions certified.

One proposed class action filed last month accuses Rocket of steering borrowers to more expensive loans, part of a recent wave of Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act suits in the broader industry. The company, which also faced similar accusations from the government before that case was dismissed, has denied the allegations. 

The Detroit giant is also accused of selling its mortgage applicants' sensitive financial data to third parties through trackers on its website. The California consumer behind that proposed class action lawsuit has suggested the potential class could span hundreds of thousands of Rocket customers. The lender has yet to formally respond to those claims.