United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 20-2025
CYNTHIA BOSS,
Plaintiff, Appellee,
v.
FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY; FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE
ASSOCIATION,
Defendants, Appellants,
SANTANDER BANK, N.A.,
Defendant.
No. 20-2026
JUDITH A. SISTI,
Plaintiff, Appellee,
v.
FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE CORPORATION; FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE
AGENCY; NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE, LLC,
Defendants, Appellants.
APPEALS FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND
[Hon. John J. McConnell, Jr., Chief U.S. District Judge]
Before
Lynch and Kayatta, Circuit Judges,
and Woodcock,* District Judge.
Michael A.F. Johnson, with whom Dirk C. Phillips, Omomah I.
Abebe, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP were on brief, for
appellant Federal Housing Finance Authority.
Samuel C. Bodurtha and Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP on brief, for
appellants Federal Housing Finance Authority, Federal National
Mortgage Association, and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.
Joseph A. Farside, Jr., Krystle G. Tadesse, and Locke Lord
LLP on brief for appellant Nationstar Mortgage LLC.
Steven S. Flores, with whom Michael Zabelin and Rhode Island
Legal Services, Inc. were on brief, for appellees.
Bruce Bennett, Chané Buck, Lawrence D. Rosenberg, C. Kevin
Marshall, and Jones Day on brief for amici curiae Institutional
Investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Thomas A. Cox on brief for amicus curiae National Consumer
Law Center.
June 8, 2021
* Of the District of Maine, sitting by designation.
LYNCH, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs in these appeals,
consolidated for oral argument, entered into mortgages giving
their lenders the right, under Rhode Island law, to nonjudicially
foreclose on their mortgages. The appeals concern whether these
plaintiffs can bring constitutional due process claims against the
Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and the
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac")
(collectively, the "GSEs") after the Federal Housing Finance
Agency ("FHFA"), acting as the GSEs' conservator, caused the GSEs
to exercise their contractual rights to nonjudicially foreclose.
For the reasons stated in Montilla v. Federal National Mortgage
Ass'n, No. 20-1673 (lst Cir. June 8, 2021), Fannie Mae, Freddie
Mac, and FHFA were not acting as the government when they did so.
The plaintiffs' claims fail.
The decision of the district court is reversed with
instructions to enter judgment in favor of Fannie Mae, Freddie
Mac, and FHFA.
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