CIT Bank Mortgage Modification Suit Survives Another Challenge

A whistleblower suit alleging that CIT Bank NA committed fraud under federal mortgage modification programs to address the 2008 housing crisis isn’t barred by the False Claims Act’s first-to-file rule, a Texas district court said.

CIT Bank asserted that Andrew Mitchell’s suit was barred because his original complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Texas while another related and now-dismissed suit brought by whistleblower Michael Fisher was pending in the Southern District of New York.

Mitchell’s suit can continue because the first-to-file bar doesn’t apply when the same plaintiff files the same claim in a different jurisdiction, Judge Amos ...