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

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

Document 339-24

Filed 01/31/2006

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

CAMILLE MELONAKI S-KURZ, )

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employees, )
Plaintiffs, )
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individually and on behalf)

of other similarly situated)

v s . ) No. 03 - MK - 2485
HEARTLAND HOME FINANCE, )

INC. , )

Defendant.; t ~rpi t
VIDEOTAPED DEPOSITION OF PHILLIP JOHNSON,

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12 produced, sworn, and examined on Tuesday, the 6th

day of December, 2005, between the hours of 11: 03

14 10104 West 105th Street, in the City of Overland

13 in the forenoon and 1: 41 in the afternoon of that day at the offices of Jay E. Suddreth & Associates,
Park, County of Johnson, State of Kansas, before:

17 of100 18 Suite
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16 ELLEN L. STOCK, RMR
Certified Shorthand Reporter
JAY E. SUDDRETH & ASSOCIATES, INC.

19 Overland Park, KS 66212-5746
a Certified Shorthand Reporter in and for the State

10104 West 105th Street

21 of Kansas.
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22 Taken on behalf of Plaintiffs pursuant to Notice to
Take Deposi tion.

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

Document 339-24

Filed 01/31/2006

Page 2 of 6

Philip Johnson 12/6/2005

Camile Melonakis-Kurz,et aL. v. Heartland HomeFinance, Inc.

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then? 45?
A.
Q.

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Forty-five's fine. 11:06:04
If we were more than 10, 15

11:06:01

What was your typical weekly schedule? 11:06:11
Well, we were required to be at work by nine 11:06:15

A.

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o'clock.

11:06:19
11:06:27

minutes late, we were reprimanded. We could 11:06:22
have an hour to hour, 15 minutes for lunch.

And we we r e t 0 be on the phone s pro c e s sin g , 11 : 0 6 : 32
doing the things tha t are typical for a loan 11: 06: 35

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officer. 11:06:36
But we could not leave the office until 11:06:38

7: 00, 7: 30 at night. Of course, if we were
on the phone with a client, sometimes it
could go until 8:00, 8:30.
Q.

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Okay. And who required to you maintain
those hours?

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A.
Q.

Mike Kelly. 11: 06: 51
Did he instruct you that those are the hours 11: 06: 53

11:06:42 11:06:44 11:06:46 11:06:49 11:06:50

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you were supposed to work?
A.
Q.

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Yes.

Okay. That schedule, was that a
Monday-through-Thursday schedule or a
Monday-through- Friday?

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A.

That's Monday-through-Thursday. On

11:06:54 11:06:56 11:06:58 11:07:00 11:07:01 11:07:04

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("-'-.

Fridays -- he did allow us to take off a bi t
Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc. 612-339-0545

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

Document 339-24

Filed 01/31/2006

Page 3 of 6

Phillip Johnson 12/6/2005 Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et aL. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

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He didn't always stay, but he would unlock 12:22:08

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the door and come back to lock the door. 12:22:32
Q.

When you were talking about the job duties

of a loan officer, and you talked about how
to best fi t the people into a program, can

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12:22:36 12:22:40 12:22:44
12:22:47 12:22:50 12:22:54 12:23:01 12:23:04 12:23:14
12:23:24 12:23:28 12:23:33 12:23:38 12:23:45 12:23:48 12:23:51 12:23:52 12:23:58 12:24:01

you tell me a li t tle bi t about what you mean 12: 22: 46

by that?
A.
Different companies have different loan

products.

Some which are driven by credi t

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score and model.

Some have other criteria:

loan size requirements, loan-to-value

requirements. Many times you have to fi t a
and his loan-to-va1ue into a certain loan

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customer's credit score, his debt to income, 12:23:19

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package.

Some companies would have higher

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rates than others for a similar product.

So the basic job was to find the best
fit at the best cost that you could.
Q.

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Now, would customers talk to you about what
their goals or needs were in terms of what
they wanted to accomplish?

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A.

Typically, in the conversation you're asking 12: 23: 55

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them, you know, are they just trying to pay

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off debt? Are they trying to lower their rate?
Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc. 612-339-0545

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

Document 339-24

Filed 01/31/2006

Page 4 of 6

Phillip Johnson 12/6/2005 Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et aL. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

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Q.

A.

12:28:14 Wha t do you mean when you say tha t every 12:28:16 loan iS unique? 12:28:18 Well, not every customer has the same credit 12: 28: 22
score. Not every customer has the same

teacher.

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needs. You may have fi ve people in a row
that tell you they want to reduce their

ra te, but not everyone's going to qual i fy
for the same product. And so you have to
take a different tact or package it

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differently to be able to get an
underwriting decision that's affirmative,

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Q.

so. . .
Now, in terms of establishing what the fees

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would be for these products, how did tha t
work?
A.

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There were general guidelines as far as the

12:28:24 12:28:28 12:28:30 12:28:33 12:28:35 12:28:36 12:28:43 12:28:46 12:28:48 12:28:51 12:28:56 12:29:02 12:29:04
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fees.

I think it really boiled down to what 12:29:14

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the loan officer felt that he could sell to

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his customer. And some loan officers in the 12:29:24
office had higher fees than others.

If they got to be too low, Mike Kelly
would bump them up for you.
charge more.

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Tell you to

12:29:31 12:29:33 12:29:38

But there was -- I don't think 12:29:43

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there was a set requirement other than, you

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612-339-0545

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

Document 339-24

Filed 01/31/2006

Page 5 of 6

Philip Johnson 12/6/2005

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

Well, the -- when you say fees, you're

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talking origination fees.
Q.

Right.
That is what the -- that's what a loan
officer typically charges.
Points iS

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12:31:20 12:31:23 12:31:23 12:31:24 12:31:26

something different. Points ls when you buy 12:31:28

down a rate typically. And that's 12:31:31
12:31:37 rate structure. 12:31:41 Did you ever buy down a rate while you were 12:31:43 working at Heartland? 12:31:45 Never. 12:31:47 In terms of selecting appraisers, how did 12:31:52 you go about doing that? 12:31:54 There was a list of approved appraisers. 12:32:02 Typically, when you had a customer that was 12: 32: 12
established by the company itself in their

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Q.

A.
Q.

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out of area, you'd go to appraisers dot.com 12:32:12
or some other type web site to search for an 12:32:14

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appraiser.

Or you would use Nations Title

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who has a network of appraisers. And they
would help you find one if it was out of
state or out of area.
Q.

So. . .

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What about title companies? How did you
decide which ti tIe companies to use?

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A.

Title companies were pretty well dictated by

Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc. 612-339-0545

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

Document 339-24

Filed 01/31/2006

Page 6 of 6

Philip Johnson 12/6/2005

Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et aL. v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.
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the office.

They would come by, you know.

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Mike would entertain them, you know.
They'd -- and we were instructed, you know,

to use this title company or that title

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company.
Out of area, again, was a little more

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difficult. We just had to find one local to 12:33:03

the customer, so...
Q.

When you say that you were told to use this

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title company or that title company, I mean, 12: 33: 09

did you have your choice between two or
three, or would he say, On thi s loan you've
got to use this ti tIe company?

A.

We were never required to use one over
another. At least I never got tha t

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indication.

Title companies were -- it's

whoever we wanted to use.
I used Nations.
Capi tal.

There were times

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There were times I used

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There were times I used Chicago.

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So I never felt like there was a specific 12: 33: 34
ti tIe company that I absolutely was required 12: 33: 38

to use. 12:33:40
Q.

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Were there -- I know you said that, like,

12:33:42

the title company representatives might come 12:33:44

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into the office. Would representatives from

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