Free Response to Motion - District Court of Colorado - Colorado

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

Document 345-21

Filed 02/16/2006

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1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
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4 CAMI LLE MELONAKI S - KURZ,

etc., et al.,

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Plaintiffs,
Case No.

vs.
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03-CV-2485 (MSK/PAC)

HEARTLAND HOME FINANCE,

8 INC. ,
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9 Defendant.
THE DEPOSITION OF DANIEL KOPRONICA TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2005

The deposi tion of DANIEL KOPRONICA, called by
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the Defendant for examination pursuant to the
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Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, taken before me,

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the undersigned, Darlene Vance, Registered
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Professional Reporter and Notary Public wi thin and
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19 for the State of Ohio, taken at the offices of Cady 20

21 Reporting Services, 1220 Illuminating Building,
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23 Cleveland, Ohio, commencing at 9: 06 a. m., the day

25 and date above set forth.

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came time for me to give him my opinion, I

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believe I spoke what is the truth, that
everybody at that table wanted to say but

didn't, and at that time Don verbally attacked

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Q

me.
Well, when you say verbally attacked you, what
did he say, as best you can recall?
A

I'm not going to use that kind of language

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here.
Q

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Can you are you suggesting that he used
profani ty?

A
Q

Ab sol ute 1 y .

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Did you use profani ty?
No, I did not. I sat there and listened to him
take it -- I took it. I took everything he
said. When it was done, I asked him if that

A

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Q

was directed towards me, and he said yes. What was it -- what was your obj ection wi th the
new direction? What did you see as the problem
wi th the new direction the company was taking?

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A

Cutting out certain lenders that we dealt with
every day.

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Q

And why was it -- how was it explained to you
that the company felt the need to do that?

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A

To put it in his words, he said you don't work

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

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a t Ford and dr i ve a Chevy; you don't work at
Heartland and use Innerfirst, which is a bank

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we used and did -- I can't even tell you how
many millions of dollars on a monthly basis.
Q

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Was tha t brokering loans, then, through there?

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Q

Yes.
And why did you want to continue to do the

brokering?
A

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Because that's the bank that we used the most,

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Q

that's how we hi t our goals every month. I
knew the system inside and out with Innerfirst,
wi th Moi, doing on-line loans, and basically it

was being taken away from us.
And how did you see that negatively impacting

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you?
A

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Higher interest rates for the customers, longer
turnaround times to get loans done, which means I wouldn't hit our $150,000 monthly goal, which

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means that I wouldn't get paid bonuses. The
loan officers wouldn't get paid as much because it would take longer to get paid, it took

longer to get loans processed. With that in
mind, everybody would have lost money.
Q

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When you were a loan officer, did you do qui te

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a bi t of brokering of loans through Innerfirst

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and others?
MS. FI SHER:
Obj ection,

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vague.
A
Q

Yes, I did.

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And when you were a loan officer, did you try
and bring your customers more than one option
for their refinancing?

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Q

Yes.

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And why did you do tha t?
To give them the option of what loan program
they wanted.

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A

Q

What, if any, advice or counsel did you give
them about the options that you presented?

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A

Basically it was whether it was an arm or fixed
rate, cash-out as opposed to just a rate and

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Q

term finance.
And what, if any, explaining of these did you
do to your customers?
A
Q

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I walked them through the entire process.

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And why did you do that?
To show them wha t kind 0 f bene fit s that we had

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for them.
Q

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Do you feel you were counseling them on making

decisions?
MS. FISHER:
Obj ection,

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fairly successful loan officer at Heartland,

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correct? Correct.
What percentage of those were the result of
leads that were provided to you by Heartland?

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A
Q

I would say approximately 70 percent.

What was the value to you of giving the
customers advice or explanation as to the loan
options that you were presenting to them?

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A
Q

Wha t was my val ue on tha t?

What did you see -- what was the value to you
of doing that?

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A

Giving them the absolute best scenarios and

letting them choose. I would coach them along
and tell them what I thought was best for them,

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Q

since I was in the industry, and let them
making their own decisions.

And did you feel you were good at that part of
the job?

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A
Q

Ab sol ute 1 y .

Did you feel that that was an important part of
the job, to be able to do those kinds of

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A

explanations?
Yes.

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as to the issue of brokering something as

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opposed to taking it to Heartland directly?
A
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Not specifically that I can think of.

And it is true, i sn 't it, tha t the vas t
majority of your loans that you closed while
you were wi th Heartland were broke

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red loans?

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Correct.
Did you ever meet wi th customers outside the

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office?
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Q

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Yes.
And did you meet wi th customers in the office,
in person?

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Q

Yes, I did.
About what percentage of the time did you do
either, a meeting in person outside the office
or inside the office with a customer?

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A

Maybe only 25 percent of the time.

MS. FISHER: I'd just like
to object to the last question as being vague

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as to time frame as to when he was a loan

officer or a manager. Just so I can get an

obj ection on that.

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answered it.

MR. CARR: He's already
MS. FISHER:

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I can still

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Heartland's policy?
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The policy was that there was always Heartland
nonconforming on the BC side for a customer.

They did want, you know, the BC loans, the

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nonconforming loans to go to Heartland

nonconforming. Conforming wise, we were free
to use Innerfirst, Country Wide, a number of

lenders. Don' s meeting was that we were making

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a swi tch now, we were opening Heartland
conforming, they were going to be comparable to
Innerfirst, but the rates were higher.
Q

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So then at that point was the change going to

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be that all loans were supposed to be sent to
Heartland banking whether conforming or

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nonconforming?
MR. CARR:
Obj ect to the

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form of the question, leading.
A

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Yes. If it was a conforming loan, it would go

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to Heartland conforming. Those are your good
customers, the higher credi t scores. And they
still expected the nonconforming loans to go
through Heartland nonconforming.
Q

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Okay. Mr. Carr showed you your employment
agreement and showed you a section that said
that -- I'm sorry, I don't remember which

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