Free Brief in Support of Motion - District Court of Colorado - Colorado

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

Document 339-4

Filed 01/31/2006

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IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
FOR THE 01 STRICT OF COLORADO

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4 CAMILLE MELONAKIS-KURZ,

5 Individually and on behalf
6 of other similary si tuated

7 employees,

8 Plaintiffs,
9 v s . Cas e No. 0 3 - MK - 2 4 8 5
Defendant.

10 HEARTLAND HOME FINANCE, INC.,
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(co)f

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The Videotaped Deposi tion of SCOTT I. ALAWAN

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Taken at 30800 Telegraph, Suite 2925,

Bingham Farms, Michigan,
Commencing at: 8:07 a.m.,

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Thursday, October 27, 2005,

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Before Nora Morrissy, RMR, CRR, CSR-2642.

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ini tial documents and get any documents that we would

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need, pay stubs, mortgage statements, insurance

statements.
Q.

How did you learn how to fill out the application with
the customer?

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A.

From other people.

From either Fred or people would

help me in the office and kind of learned as you went.
Q.

By other people, do you mean other loan officers?

A.
Q.

Yes.
Do you mean senior loan officers or other loan

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officers?
A.
Q.

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Both.
When you would meet with a borrower, where would you
meet with them?

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A.
Q.

Ei ther in the office or we would go to their home.
Wha t would you talk about?

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A.

We would go over what program, you know, best suited
them and if it sounded good and --

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Q.

How would you determine what program best suited them?
By their credit and what their current, you know,

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A.

status was as far as their current mortgage, if they

were just lowering their rate or if they were looking
to consolidate bills.
Q.

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Now, how did you learn how to make that determination?
How did I learn how?

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A.

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Scott 1. Alawan 10/27/2005 Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.
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Q.

Uh-huh. When you would meet with them and you would
decide -- you'd talk about what program was the best
for them, how did you learn how to decide or to

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determine or recommend what program was the best for

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them?
A.

I had always been in finance, sales.

So, I could -- I

would add up their debts and see what would be best
for them.

I had worked in finance before, banks and

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basically they would kind of tell us what they were
looking for, you know, could you do this, could you
get me this type of rate.
Q.

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So, are you saying basically from your past experience
and then also from what the customer would tell you?

A.
Q.

Yes.
Was it always your goal to help the customer find the
program that best suited them?

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A.
Q.

Yes.
Other than talking with the customer about what

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program best suited them during your meeting, did you
talk about anything else?

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A.
Q.

No.
And then what would you do?

A.

Turn the file into the processing department and order
the appraisal.

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Q.

Did you select who did the appraisal?

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

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A.

I think sometimes I did but just because -- it wasn't -- it was not really -~ they didn't really seem to
really care how sloppy these sheets were done.

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I mean we were just kind of throwing

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numbers up there and at end of the week, we'd add them
up, oh, that 's 44 or whatever it says knowing that we

were trying to keep it close to 40.

Knowing that we

were there way more but it didn't really matter what we put down because she told us you're not going to
get paid anyway, you are getting your draw and that's
it, and that's why we didn't understand why they were
making us record our hours.

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Basically they said if

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you don't have at least 40 showing, then we won't pay
you your draw.
Q.

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Did you ever complain to anyone that you were working
10 to 15 hours over this 40 that you were supposed to

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be shooting for?
A.
Q.

No.
Did you feel it was possible to do your job within 40

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A.
Q.

hours?
Yes.
Why didn't you?
Why didn't I

A.
Q.

I'm sorry.

I f you could get your job done in 40 hours, why didn't
you do your job in 40 hours instead of 50 or 55?

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debt ratio or something like that.

People would ask,

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there was a lot of people that would come into the

business that didn't know they were doing, they were

hired in and anybody that was around would help them
if they could if they had time.
Q.

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Did any managers ever ask for help?

A.

Probably because they also wrote loans and sometimes

if they didn't know what to do with it, they would ask
for input, if we had any ideas.
Q.

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And when we are talking about asking for help, I'm
asking for both the first and second periods of your

employment.

During the second period of employment do

you remember what managers asked you for help?
A.
Q.

I don't remember any specific.

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Just that it happened?

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A.
Q.

Yeah.
How often did it happen?
I don't remember exactly.
It was very casual.
I have

A.

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a loan that's working, do you have any ideas, I don't

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know what to do with it type of thing. Other managers
would be walking through the office and would bring it

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up.

It was never formal type, your job is come help

me do this, whatever. Hey, you got a second, you
know, very casual comments brought up all the time.
Q.

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I understand. And what would you tell them when they

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

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would ask you for help?

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A.

If I had an idea, I would tell them what bank I think
would take that particular customer, you know.

That

was it.
Q.

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Did any regional managers ask you for advice?

A.
Q.

No.
When you first started, did you ask other loan
officers for advice?

A.
Q.

Yes. Always up through the end I did.
So, during your whole period of employment?

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A.
Q.

Sure.
And would they be loan officers and senior loan

officers?
A.
Q. A.

Uh-huh.

Yes.

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What kind of advice would you seek from them?
Same thing that I just said that the managers would,

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it was the same type of scenario because every

borrower would be a different situation that would happen and could be doing it for ten years and
something strange would come up and you wouldn't know where to send the loan, couldn't really figure out
wha t to do with it, so, you would as k for other people

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to help. Anyone have any ideas. That was really
about the only time I needed help.
Q.

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Now, you came from a car dealership.

Did you need any

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

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training when you started at Heartland?
A.

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Just document training, you know, just how to input

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the forms, that's about it.
Q.

So, you didn't receive any other training other than

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document -A.
Q. A.

Nothing formal, no.
What informal training did you receive then?
I think I -- it was very learn as you go, you know.

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Started inputting it and if you missed something, you
were told what you were miss ing and you'd add it in

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and as you did more and more loans, that's how you
learned what needed to be done.
There was no

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training.
Q.

And outside of the advice that we already discussed,

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did you give training to anybody while you were at

Heartland?
A.
Q.

As like in formal training, no.

Outside of what we've already discussed, did you give
informal training to anyone at Heartland?

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A.
Q.

I'm sure I did.

Like what?

A.
Q.

I would help new people if they asked.

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What would they ask you about?

A.

Just how to, you know, how to input the information

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or, you know, how do I figure this debt ratio out or

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

Document 339-4

Filed 01/31/2006

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Scott 1. Alawan 10/2712005 Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.
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what -Q.

And that was during your whole period of employment?

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A.

Yes.

Everyone worked together.

There was no -- there

was no line that said go to these people and ask for
help, don't go to them, it was kind of like everyone
just talked to each other.
Q.

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within your team?

A.
Q.

Correct.
And as to teams, how many people -- how many loan
officers were on your team during your first period of

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employment?
A.
Q.

Fifteen I think.

And during the second period?

A.
Q.

Ten.
And during the first period, how many different teams
were at the branch?

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A.
Q.

Four.
Does that include your team?

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A.
Q.

Yes.
And during the second period of employment?

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A.
Q.

Same, four.
You mentioned earlier that if you got a lead late in
the day, you might need to stay until as late as 7: 30

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or later than that during the second period of

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employment?