Free Response to Motion - District Court of Colorado - Colorado

Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22
Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 1 of 11

Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 1

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Civil Action No. 03-MK-2485
Camille Melonakis-Kurz, individually and on behalf of similarly situated employees,

5 6
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other)
) ) ) ) ) )

)

Plaintiff,
vs.
Heartland Horne Finance, Inc.,

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) ) ) )

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Defendant.
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VIDEOTAPED DEPOSITION OF JENNIFER LEGREE

FOR TRIAL
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January 20, 2006 3:01 p.m. Phoenix, Arizona

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Prepared by:
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Cecelia Brookman, RPR Arizona Certified Reporter No. 50154

Prepared for:

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22
Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 2 of 11

Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

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1 I will represent to you that is, I believe, your

2 employment application. Was that filled out by you and

3 is that your signature at the end of it? Go ahead and
4 take a moment to look at it.

5 (Brief pause.)
6
7

THE WITNESS:
Q.

Yes.

BY MR. CARR:

Is it accurate, to the best of

8 your knowledge?
9

A.
Q.

To the best of my knowledge, yes.
How did you corne to work at Heartland?

10 11

A.

I was actually referred there, through, Kevin

12 Karpovich recrui ted me.
13
14
Q.

How did you know Kevin?
Just, he was a friend of the family.

A.
Q.

15

He was a friend of the family?

16
17

A.

Correct.
MR. CARR:

Let's go ahead and mark this as

18 defense Exhibit 2.

19 (Defendant's Exhibit No.2 was marked for
20 identification.)
21
Q.

BY MR. CARR:

The court reporter has marked and

22 handed to you for purposes of identification -- it's
23 marked for purposes of identification defendant's
24
Exhibi t 2, and it's handed to you.

Take a look at this

25 and tell me if this is a document you recognize.

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 3 of 11

Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 32

1

(Brief pause.)

2

THE WITNESS:
Q.

I recall this document, yes.

3

BY MR. CARR:

Is that your signature on

4 Page 13?
5 6
7
8

A.
Q.

Yes.
And are these your ini tials on the pages?

A.
Q.

Yep.
When you went to work for Heartland you had

9 worked as a waitress, and so you had an understanding of

10 what overtime was as we speak of it in the United States;

11 correct?
12

A.
Q.

Sure, yeah.

13

And what was your understanding of what was

14 overtime?
15
A.
Q.
More than 40 hour s a wee k.

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17

Take a look, if you will, on Page 4 of
And right there in the last line

defendant's Exhibi t 2.

18 it says, comply with all policies and procedures of the 19 employer which relate to the verification of hours worked

and preapproved overtime hours. Did you ever seek 21 preapproval for any of the overtime hours that you say
20

22 you have worked?
23
24
A.

Well, this document carne out in June 11th, and

we were recording our hours prior to that point.

So as

25 you can see when I signed this, based on June 11th, there
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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 4 of 11

Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006 Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 57

1 not allowed to broker to any bank I wanted to broker to.

2 But if in the event we couldn't closed through Heartland
3 or their banking, then we were allowed to go outside and

4 broker, yes.
5

Q.

So like even in June of 2003 you brokered with

6 First Franklin, I think it is, Decision, Town Mortgage,

7 Union, those all sound familiar to you?

8 A. Yes.
9

Q.

Tell me what caused you to broker a loan.

Even

10 after -- you said there was a point in time where you

11 were not supposed to, or the loan was first go to

12 Heartland and Heartland was supposed to bank it if they
13 could, or if they wanted to.
14

A.
Q.

Sure.
So tell me about the process where these loans

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16 ended up being brokered.
17 18

A.

Sometimes if you submitted to Heartland and,

you know, the client wouldn't buy the deal at all.

Like

19 say, for example, you sent it to the sub prime department
20 at Heartland, and they couldn't do the deal or they carne

21 back with a rate that was an 11 percent and you were
22 getting 7 percent at First Franklin, for example, your
23
manager had to sign off on it.

But that was just an

24 unrealistic deal to sell to the client at 11 percent

25 when, you know, First Franklin was offering.
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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22
Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 5 of 11

Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

1 And there was a couple of them that they
3

Page 58

2 wanted us to -- they didn't want us to go allover the
place with brokering, you know.

There was a few brokers

4 that they were comfortable with for us to use, approved

5 brokers we'll call it.
6

Q.

And I reviewed your HUD 1 forms, and I'll

7 represent to you that it looks like you did 15 loans with
8

InterFirst during your time at Heartland.

Does that

9 sound about right? I'm not holding you to exact numbers.
10
A.
I don't know.

It seems like I did more wi th

11 them, but okay.
12
Q.

19 wi th Heartland.
Okay.

Okay? And 13 wi th First

13 Franklin.
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A.
Q.

15

Does that sound about right?
I don't know, I'd have to look at my records,

16

A.

17 but okay.
18
Q.
And then you also broke

red loans wi th Chase,

19 SMC, Creeve, Americ, First Union, Town. All that sound

20 right?
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22
A.
Q.

Yeah.
To do this you had to be thinking about what

23 all the options were for your customers; right? Because

24 you're trying to find a solution that is better for them.
25 Maybe it would be better for Heartland to get that high
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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 6 of 11

Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 59

1 interest rate, but you were doing something that
2 benefited the customer by getting that lower interest

3 rate in the example you just offered; correct?
4

MS. FI SHER: Obj ection; vague.

5

THE WITNESS: Repeat again what you're

6 trying to...
7

Q.

BY MR. CARR:

Sure.

Maybe it's self-evident,

8 but if Franklin is offering a loan at 7 percent, and
9 Heartland is offering at 11 or 13 percent, your customer
10 is better off by taking the 7 percent, even though it's

11 brokered; right?
12

A.

Realistically, I'm a salesperson, I'm there to

13 make money, so I can't really get two points on the back
14 at 11 percent and sell that deal when I can get two
15
points from First Franklin.
It's about my sales, it's

16

about what I'm going to make at the end of the day.

And

17 if I have to take it to another company because
18 undeniably I'm going to make more money and it's a better

19 deal and product, that's what I'm going to do.
20
Q.

Which is going to be better for the customer,

21 the 7 percent or the 13 percent?
22
A.

Well, they could be the same deal.

It could be

23

the same loan, I mean.

So inevitably in the customer's

24 mind it may be better because the payment's going to be

25 lower, yes, I mean that makes sense.

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 7 of 11

Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 73

1

Q.

Yes.
That was just -- I mean, he was frantic often,

2

A.

3 because I don't think he was very organi zed as a manager.

4 So we were always backlogging something for him to make

5 sure that he was covering his butt, so to speak.
6

Q.

Sounds like you don't have the highest regard

7 for him as a manager.
8

A.

He's a good person, but I thought he was a very

9 poor manager, absolutely, and still do.
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Q.

Why did you corne to leave Heartland?

A.

Just with the banking situation, our pipelines

12 were backing up a lot, and I wasn't making the money that

13 I needed to make, and it was becoming very hard being
14 that we were supposed to be using banking, and it was

15 taking a lot more time to get a deal underwritten, and
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essentially my money.

I wasn't making the money tha t I

1 7 was making, and I wasn't able to meet my lifestyle needs.
18
Q.

So you quit and went to another mortgage

19 company?
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A.
Q.

That's correct. Are you involved in any other lawsui ts besides
No.
Are you paid overtime in your current

22 this one?
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24
A.
Q.

25 employment?

Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc.

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 8 of 11

Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

1

A.
Q.

I f I worked overtime?

I'm not sure.

Page 74

2

Do you work more than 40 hours per week in your

3 current employment?
4

MS. FISHER:
Q.

Obj ection; relevance.

5 6

BY MR. CARR:

You can answer.

A.

At this point I'm not working more than 40

7 hours a week, no.
8

Q.

Have you ever dur ing that employment?

9

A.

I just started with this employer, so I'm
I'm still kind of in the beginning process.

10
11

fairly
Q.

Were there any other mortgage companies that

12 you worked for between the current one and Heartland?
13
14
A.
Q.

Yes.
Did you work overtime for any of those?
MS. FISHER:
Obj ection; irrelevant.

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16
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18

Q.

BY MR. CARR:

You can answer.
So as far as

A.

I was 100 percent commission so I was never

asked to document hours or anything.

19 overtime was concerned with that, I mean, I worked a ton
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of hours.
Q.

I work a lot, period, so...

And are you seeking overtime from that -- any

22 of those employers that you worked overtime for?
23
24
A.

No.
MS. FISHER:
THE WITNESS:
Obj ection; irrelevant.

25

And again, I wasn't required

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 9 of 11

Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 75

1

to be in the office when I worked for them.
out of my horne, I could work out anywhere.

I could work I could work

2

3 anywhere I wanted to work -4

Q.

BY MR. CARR:

What's the difference --

5

A.

because there was no hourly payor anything

6 like that.
7

Q.

What's the difference between Heartland -- in

8 your mind, between Heartland and those other mortgage 9 companies that you worked overtime for that you're not

10 seeking overtime pay for?
11
12

MS. FISHER: Objection; irrelevant.

THE WITNESS: The difference was that I was

13 promoting Heartland product and Heartland banking and
14 tha t I was required by Heartland to be there and promote
15

Heartland. Had I had the opportuni ty, I wouldn't have -16 because I started at heartland in, as you say, a broker
element, that was how I was used to doing business.

17

And

18 then when Heartland changed over into banking and things

19 like that, then I was required to sell their products

20 first and foremost.

21 So at that point I'm working now for
22 Heartland, I'm not working for myself as much, as what
23 I -- in comparison to my other job, where I'm working,

24 I'm finding the best deal, the best bank that offers the
25 best out there for me.
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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 10 of 11

Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

1

MS. FISHER: Object as asked and answered.
MR. CARR: It's not been answered.
MS. FI SHER: I think she said she

Page 89

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3

4 couldn't-5 6
7
8

MR . CARR:

I'll move to strike.

THE WITNESS:
MR. CARR:

There's no way -I'm looking

I'll move to strike her answer

because it's not respons i ve to my question.

9 for a percentage and a number, and she's not giving it to

10 me .
11
MS. FISHER:

I think she said she can't give

12 you a percentage.
13
MR. CARR:

I don't think so.

I mean that

14 doesn't make any sense.
15
Q.

BY MR. CARR:

You don't have a best estimate as

16 to how often the branch manager rej ected or vetoed what

1 7 you proposed?

18 A. You're talking in a matter of relevance to
19 what? There's a lot of things the manager makes a

20 judgment call on in reference to vetoing what I'm

21 presenting.
22
Q.

Let's back up.

We'll try a different way.

23
24

A.
Q.

All right.
How often did you go to your branch manager

25 wi th a question about something you were proposing?

Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc.

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-22
Jennifer Legree 1/20/2006

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 11 of 11

Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 90

1

A.
Q.

To my branch manager?

2 3

Yes.
I tried as much as possible not to go to my

A.

4 branch manager.
5
6

Q.

Okay.
I tried to sell what was in our program

A.

7 guidelines. And what I did, I sold what was going to get

8 done, the deal that was going to get done. Which the
9 deals got done were Heartland deals.
10
MR . CARR:

That answers my question, and

11 thank you. We can take a break at this point because he
12 needs to swi tch the tape and I may be done.
13
THE VIDEOGRAPHER:

This marks the end of

14 Tape 1. We're off the record at 4:47.
15

(The deposition was concluded at 4:47 p.m.)

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