It comes as no surprise that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has tried to falsely paint Quicken Loans’ strong case against the DOJ as a “procedural end run” in order to justify its own venue shopping in its counter suit.
The lawsuit filed by Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest and highest quality (lowest default rate) FHA lender, in Detroit Federal Court is the logical and correct forum for the company’s case, and remains so even when taking into account the false accusations of the DOJ in its later counter suit.
However, instead of filing its case in the same court – the appropriate and correct venue given the DOJ’s ill-founded assertions – they instead elected to engage in the tactic of forum shopping, filing in Washington D.C., a geography that has no nexus to any of the claims of either party to this litigation in an obvious effort to cause undue burden and expense to its latest target, Quicken Loans.
Washington, D.C., has little or no connection to the DOJ’s counterclaim or Quicken Loans’ lawsuit against the DOJ.
Every individual the DOJ listed in its complaint is located in the state of Michigan. All of the documents the DOJ references in its counter claim is in the state of Michigan. All of the underwriting decisions, FHA certifications and endorsements that the DOJ includes in its pleadings all took place in the state of Michigan.
We will vigorously pursue transfer of the DOJ’s counter claim case to the appropriate venue – the Eastern District of Michigan Federal Court – the same venue where Quicken Loans will continue to pursue its case against the government to show the illegal actions that have been taken against our company.
Finally, even had Quicken Loans not filed its law suit against the DOJ, the Federal Court’s Eastern District of Michigan would have been the appropriate and correct forum based on the application of 1404(a) factors which for decades have guided the federal courts and established overwhelming precedence for claims similar to those at issue here, to be heard in the forum where the disputes arose and the witnesses are located.