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

Document 339-8

Filed 01/31/2006

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IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN
SOUTHERN DIVISION

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CAMILLE MELONAKIS-KURZ,

Individually and on behalf of

other similarly si tuated
employee s,

(c(Qflf
Case No. 03-MK-2485

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Plaintiff,
vs.
HEARTLAND HOME FINANCE, INC.,

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Hon. Marcia S. Kreiger

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Defendant.

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The Videotaped Deposi tion of KEVIN BLOCK,

Taken at 1515 Michigan Avenue, Northeast,

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Grand Rapids, Michigan,
Commencing at 3:13 p.m.,

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Thursday, January 19, 2006,

Before Rebecca J. Callow, CSR-5228, RPR.

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;,,'

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

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Q.

Yolanda -- and I don i t know how to pronounce --

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A.
Q.

Tj emmes .
-- the last name.
It l s Tj emmes .

It l s T- j --

A.
Q.

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Okay.

T-j -e-m-m-e-s .

A.
Q.

Yes.
Okay.
That i S all I have for that list.

A.
Q.

Okay.
When you were a branch manager, did any of the loan
officers you supervised ever work more than 40 hours
per week?

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A.
Q.

Did they ever work more than 40 hours a week?

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Yes.

A.

They could have. They weren l t as ked to work more than

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Q.

40 hours.
Okay.

There was only hours that they were

required to work and that was it.

Tha t 's not my question. My question is, did

they work more than 40 hours per week?
A.
Q.

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I don't know.

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Is it possible that the loan officers that you
supervised worked more than 40 hours per week?

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A.
Q.

Possible, yes.

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And when you were a branch manager, did you implement
time sheets that your loan officers had to use?

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A.

Yes.

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A.
Q.

Yes.

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Okay. What were those hours?
They were required to be at the office from 10 to 12.

A.
Q. A. Q.

Okay.
And from five to seven.
10 to 12

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A.
Q.

10 a.m. to noon.

And then 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.?
Um - hmm .

A.
Q.

Those were the required hours to be there.

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And you required those hours?
I personally required those hours.

A.
Q.

And that was Monday through Friday?

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A.
Q.

Correct. Okay. Why did you personally require those particular
hours?
Because those, to me, where the optimal call times.

That would be Monday through Friday.

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A. Q.

Okay.

Did you ever have any -- did you ever set a

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schedule and say, you know, typically I want you guys
to be in the office from ten to seven?
A.

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You're asking me if I asked them to be there from
10 a.m. to 7 p.m.?

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Q.

Tha t 's correct.

A.
Q.

No.
Did you ever have -- given them any instructions about
how long they were to take a lunch break?

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A.

There were some that would leave. You know, if I
would leave early, as soon as my loan officers knew I

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was leaving, they be out the door five minutes later.
I mean, that's
I used to be an LO.
I was lazy.

I

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wouldn't stick around. My boss left and I knew I
could get away with it, I'd leave too.
was guilty of it too.

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You know, I

So there were -- what I l ve learned in all of
these years of writing loans and being a manager you
can find maybe -- out of an office of ten you might be

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able to find three really good loan officers that can
operate on their own without necessarily having to be

managed and having the motivation to make the money

themselves.
Q.

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But you indicated as well that they could do that and
ma ke mone y

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A.
Q.

Yeah.
-- in a 40-hour week or less?

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A.

Oh, yeah. Right now I make very good money and I
might 20 to 25 hours a week.

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Q.

Was Ellamae' s other

the other day, was that also

for church related?
A.

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Church or her children.

It was typically something in

regard to the that.
Q.

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And you said the other manager in your area, was that

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Jason -A.

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I think it was Jason at that time.

I think it was

Jason.
Q.

And his people would have to leave when he left as

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well?
A.

I believe it was made for the whole office. Yeah.
But, again, Jason and I work very well together.
We

never required it of each other. We were both -- the
only time the issue arrived is if Ellamae was the only
manager that was required to be there.
Q.

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So when Ellamae had to stay late, then both your

LOs -- your LOs would leave when you left and Jason's
LOs would leave when he left?
A.

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That's what was required if we left.

Yeah. But

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again, like I said, there were times that Jason had to
leave early and I would -- you know, I'd be with his
LOs and on the nights that Ellamae wouldn't be there,

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and it was Jason and I working that night, if I had to
leave early, Jason would be fine with my LOs being

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there. Yes, we went against management protocol, what
our managers told us that we were supposed to do, but

again, we did not want our LOs to not produce. And if
they wanted to stay, stay.
Q.
A..

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Would you say that Ellamae is an honest person?

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No.

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MS. NOVAK: Objection.

Calls for

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speculation.
A.

Well, I experienced it.
Okay. Why don l t you tell us what you experienced?
There was an incident that occurred in the office in
front of -- in front of my wife at the time, that she

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Q.

A.

physically pushed me. And this was also in front of
some loan officers as well. And when it was brought
up to my supervisor, asked why she had physically

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pushed me, Ellamae at that point in time completely

denied and said she never touched me. And my LOs and
my wife at the time both witnessed it.

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And the loan officer that I was referring to
by the name Luke Winstrom was accused of being

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being prej udiced I think is the correct term. And
when everything was all said and done in regards to
that and Marty, our boss at the time, was brought into the situation, Ellamae denied ever accusing Luke of
that, and both Luke and myself witnessed that.
Q.

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So she accused Luke of being prejudice?

A.
Q.

Prej udiced.
You and Luke both were witnesses to that?
Um - hmm .

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A.
Q.

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And she denied it?

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A.

Denied it with our boss. Correct. And, you know, I

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mean, I'm not

you know, I don't know if everybody

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in this world is guilty of a white lie here and there,

but you've got some -- you know, just those two
incidences where pretty blatant scenarios where there

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were witnesses and it was blatantly told that she did

not do it.
Q.

You mentioned that in these meetings that you would
have with your LOs that the LOs would sort of work

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Q.

through issues on di fficul t loans together?
Correct.
Could you tell me a little bit about the ways that the
LOs would work together
talking about there?
A.

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what it is that you're

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Well, like say somebody had what a manufactured home

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and It was on 20 acres. Okay? Well, at that point in
time, you know, there were a lot of in investors

that's were doing manufactured homes but then there

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were in investors that were starting to drop off. And
after so many acres, certain investors would not do

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the loan. You know, if they had more than 10 acres
then or if they were on more than a 10-acre parcel,
then this investor would not do it anymore.
So what

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would happen is, is that with -- collectively I
believe at the time I had ten loan officers.

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Collectively together, we would discuss what other

investors could that send that loan through. Or, you
know, there'd be a scenario where it's a stated --

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it's a stated income loan, they've -- they can't go conforming because their score's not high enough, but
they can go this route and, you know, take it

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somewhere else. So it was just, you know, basically,

you know, different loan scenarios. And the majority
of my loan officers

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(Interruption. )
A.

Am I allowed to take this call just to say I can't
pick up?

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Q.

Sure. Go ahead.
(Off the record at 4:33 p.m.)

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(Back on the record at 4:34 p.m.)

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MR. POCKRASS: Why don't we go ahead and go

off the record so he can take this call.
VIDEO TECHNICIAN: We're off the record at
4:34 p.m.
(Off the record at 4 :34 p.m.)

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(Back on the record at 4:35 p.m.)

VIDEO TECHNICIAN: We are back on the record

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Q.

Okay. When we broke you were telling us about these

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

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Kevin Block 1/19/2006

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Q.

And was the goal of this to help train the different

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loan officers?
A.

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Correct.

It was to help -- the common goal was for

everybody to close loans. And it was -- that's why I
had so many meetings.

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I was the manager -- I got made

fun of for having so many meetings with my employees.

Because it didn't seem necessary to the other

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managers, but to me it seemed necessary because it
gave my loan officers the opportunity to work

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together.

It's more of a comradery, to work together

and to have an opportunity to learn from each other and not just have having a manager that supposedly
knows it all.

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That way, you know, loan officers were

able to learn from each other, not necessarily just

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f rom me.
Q.

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And did you find that you learned from your loan
officers as well?

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A.

Yeah.

i learn every day in this business.

MR. POCKRASS: Could you mark that, please?
Jill, I've got an exhibit.

It's from the files that

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have been produced to you previously.
MS. NOVAK: Okay.
MR. POCKRAS S :

The Bates

numbers on this -- it will be Exhibit I.

The Bates numbers are DEF

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13451 to 13471.

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