Caliber sues Union Home Mortgage for raiding 52 employees

Caliber Home Loans is suing a fellow lender for unfair competition, accusing it of allegedly raiding dozens of its employees responsible for over $400 million in origination volume last year. 

The Dallas-based lender wants damages in excess of $4.5 million from Union Home Mortgage Corp. according to the complaint filed Oct. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division. A former Caliber regional vice president resigned and took approximately 51 employees with him to UHM, the suit claims. 

“Union Home wanted to cripple Caliber’s retail mortgage business in the Southeast and eliminate competition, in particular Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina, and to convert that production, revenue, and profits to its own,” wrote attorney Jason Elliott of Dallas-based Perkins Coie LLP on behalf of Caliber. 

Elliott and representatives for the companies didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday.

The lawsuit accuses Kevin Cario, former Caliber regional vice president for the southeast region of the U.S., of resigning Sept. 30 and recruiting to UHM the 51 employees he supervised across Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, including 37 loan officers. The team was responsible for almost 1,600 units, representing over $400 million in origination volume last year and over $1.4 million in profits for the firm, Caliber said. 

Cario was working with his supervisor Lee Cove to arrange a mass departure of Caliber employees before they separated from each other, the complaint alleges. Cove, a former divisional vice president for the Southeast, moved onto another company this month, according to his LinkedIn. 

Neither man was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, and Cario declined to comment Monday. 

UHM offered Cario “significant inducements” to violate his contract and non-solicitation agreements, Caliber said, and Cario recruited employees both in a group meeting at his home and on work trips. He also allegedly disparaged the lender in those conversations. 

“Cario made statements to the employees he solicited to the effect that Caliber would be closing its retail operations in the Southeast (and perhaps beyond) and that the employees would no longer have a job at Caliber after he left,” the suit states. 

The former Caliber employees stockpiled loans to divert to UHM in the weeks and months preceding their separation and retained confidential Caliber customer information, Caliber claims.

Caliber and Newrez, subsidiaries of Rithm Capital, were the fifth-most prolific mortgage lenders last year but their performance in 2022 has been representative of industrywide revenue declines. Strongsville, Ohio-based UHM claimed over $13 billion in lending volume last year.

UHM has yet to respond to the complaint and a summons was served on its registered agent, Corporation Service Company, last week according to court records. 

It’s the second lawsuit Caliber has filed against a competitor over poaching claims; it sued Ohio-based CrossCountry Mortgage in May for allegedly raiding more than 80 employees responsible for $2.3 billion in annual volume. No filings have been posted in the case since CrossCountry’s motion to dismiss in August. 

Numerous lenders have accused their competition of raiding this year, although CrossCountry has fought the brunt of allegations from major firms.