Title Insurance Kickback Claims Revived as Judge Admits Error

A group of homeowners persuaded a federal judge in Maryland to resurrect their racketeering lawsuit—previously thrown out by the same judge—over an alleged mortgage settlement kickback scheme involving Sierra Pacific Mortgage Co.

Reversing his earlier decision, Judge George Levi Russell III acknowledged he had misunderstood the details of the price-fixing allegations, which also implicate insurer All Star Title Inc., when he tossed the case in March 2020 from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

“The court’s misapprehension regarding the direction of the payments between Sierra Pacific and All Star, along with its failure to consider plaintiffs’ plausible ...