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,
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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:
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 2 of 11
Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.
Page 31
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.
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He was a friend of the family?
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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.
Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc.
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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
Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc.
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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.
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A.
Q.
Sure.
So tell me about the process where these loans
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16 ended up being brokered.
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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.
Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc.
612-339-0545
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.
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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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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
Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc.
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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.
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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.
Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc.
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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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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?
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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?
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A.
Q.
Yes.
Did you work overtime for any of those?
MS. FISHER:
Obj ection; irrelevant.
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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?
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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?
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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
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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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4 couldn't-5 6
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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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