Mortgage Company Faces Class-Action Lawsuit for Unpaid Overtime
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Staff Writer January 19, 2006 2:34 PMFirst Horizon Mortgage Corp. has been sued by several of its former loan officers. They contend that First Horizon Mortgage did not pay them overtime and violated the law. More specifically, seven loan officers for First Horizon in Johnson County, Kan., had filed suit in U.S. District Court Kansas City, Kan., in October claiming the company failed to pay them for overtime they worked. Those officers asked that the court classify a class of over 2000 other employees of First Horizon Mortgage Corp. The class was certified by a judge in Kansas.
First Horizon Mortgage, based in Irving, Texas, is a unit of Memphis-based First Horizon National Corp.
In the suit and amended complaint, the loan officers state that they worked far more than 40 hours a week, coming in early, leaving late and working on weekends. The company never had them record working hours until after the suit was filed and that they were paid only by commission, never receiving overtime.
The action is similar to suits filed against other mortgage companies nationwide including lawsuits filed by the Rasansky Law Firm. The employees lawyer claims that "Not a single bank or mortgage lender has successfully defended a case like this on the issues . "
A number of companies, including Countrywide Financial, Ameriquest Mortgage and Bank of America Mortgage, have settled lawsuits against mortgage companies for various overtime violations.
First Horizon executives had no comment on the suit or class-action designation because it was "ongoing litigation," said spokeswoman Kim Cherry.
In an answer to the lawsuit filed in December, First Horizon officials denied the charges that loan officers worked more than 40 hours.
While confirming that more than half the loan officers' pay came from commissions, they denied that the workers were not paid overtime.