Slammed with poaching suits, CrossCountry Mortgage drops its own

CrossCountry Mortgage is dropping its attack and playing defense in a series of poaching lawsuits with three competitors in federal courts.

The Brecksville, Ohio-based lender late last month agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against Guild Mortgage in the U.S. District Court of the District of Nevada. A former CrossCountry branch manager diverted loans to Guild before departing to work at the lender, the lawsuit alleged.

Guild in July denied the accusations and the sides agreed to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning CrossCountry could refile its claims. A federal judge signed off on the dismissal Wednesday, according to court documents. 

Attorneys for the firms didn’t respond to requests for comment Friday. 

The mutual dismissal comes as CrossCountry Monday filed a motion to reject a separate lawsuit brought by Guild in the U.S. District Court of the Western District in Washington 10 months ago. Guild claims CrossCountry raided most of its Kirkland, Washington branch of over two dozen employees. 

An attorney for CrossCountry in Monday’s filing argued the case should be dismissed because of a lack of jurisdiction, among other legal technicalities.

CrossCountry is also locked in a legal war of words with Dallas-based Caliber Home Loans, over Caliber’s lawsuit in May alleging CrossCountry raided more than 80 of its employees. Caliber is accusing CrossCountry of unfair competition and misappropriation of trade secrets in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. 

In July, CrossCountry filed a motion to dismiss Caliber’s suit; the lenders earlier this month fired back at each other in court filings debating the motion. 

The Ohio lender will appear in a telephone conference by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Tuesday regarding a more recent poaching lawsuit from loanDepot. The mortgage giant lambasted CrossCountry in its July complaint, calling the theft of trade secrets a “core corporate principle” of the lender. 

CrossCountry has not commented publicly on any of the lawsuits.

Accusations of poaching from competitors is not unusual in the field, particularly for CrossCountry. Since 2018, AnnieMac, Freedom Mortgage, Guaranteed Rate and Homeside Financial have all accused the Ohio firm of raiding employees and possessing their trade secrets.