Lieff Cabraser served as class counsel in Lusnak v. Bank of America, a case alleging that Bank of America failed to comply with a California law requiring banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts. In 2019, the parties reached a settlement pursuant to which BofA agreed to pay $35 million. The settlement amounts to almost 75% of the escrow interest BofA allegedly failed to pay California borrowers, and as noted by Law360, “will resolve a years-old case that raised questions about national bank preemption powers and nearly reached the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The January 2020 settlement filing notes that Bank of America had already enacted changes to its policies and practices, and in 2019 began paying escrow interest to all residential mortgage escrow accounts in California.

Earlier in the case, Lieff Cabraser successfully litigated, at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the question of whether California’s mortgage escrow interest requirements were preempted by the National Bank Act.