UWM beats second "All-In" suit on federal judges' findings

United Wholesale Mortgage has batted away a legal challenge to its "All In" initiative, after a federal judge granted the lender's request to toss a brokerage's lawsuit. 

The Okavage Group failed to adequately plead antitrust and unfair trade accusations, U.S. District Judge Wendy W. Berger wrote Monday in an order in a Florida federal court. Her ruling signed off on a lower magistrate judge's earlier findings, and dismissed Okavage's suit without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled. 

"UWM's victory in this frivolous lawsuit reaffirms that the claims against us were baseless from the start," a company spokesperson said in a statement. "As we've stated from the beginning, the All In initiative benefits both the broker channel and consumers, which is evident in the increase in broker market share over the last few years."

Okavage, and an attorney for the firm, didn't respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Counsel for Okavage in 2021 called the complaint a "first strike" against the wholesale leader over its move to stop buying loans from brokers that work with competitors Rocket Cos. and Fairway Independent Mortgage Group. UWM has already beat a similar case from America's Moneyline and is suing three brokerages which allegedly violated All-In. 

Federal judges said numerous arguments by the St. Augustine, Florida-based Okavage didn't meet legal standards, such as the brokerage's allegation of a "hub-and-spoke" conspiracy model between brokers and UWM.

"With respect to communications, plaintiff has failed to make any non conclusory, factual allegations that support an inference that the brokers that agreed to the ultimatum would have not agreed absent an understanding that the other brokers would follow suit," wrote Berger. 

Okavage attempted to back its argument by referencing UWM President and CEO Mat Ishbia's comments last year that around 95% of 12,000 brokers agreed to stick with the company over its rivals. Berger wrote that Okavage's assumptions that brokers would be impacted, should a majority not opt into All-In, were only conclusory allegations. 

The Florida brokerage also unsuccessfully pointed to alleged harms to Rocket and Fairway from the ultimatum. Rocket Pro TPO has continued to record origination volume in the tens of billions per quarter, while Fairway exited wholesale operations earlier this year. Fairway was not a significant channel competitor prior to All In, and the company did not cite UWM's move as a reason for its shutdown. 

Magistrate Judge Laura Lothman Lambert last week also rejected Okavage's fifth attempt to amend its pleadings by incorporating accusations from the incendiary Hunterbrook Media report this spring. That lengthy article accused UWM of racketeering in conspiring with brokers to overcharge borrowers for billions of dollars in excess fees. 

"The proposed supplement will not cure the complaint's deficiencies and the complaint would still be subject to dismissal," wrote Lambert in response to the Hunterbrook addition.

UWM is fighting a separate lawsuit over accusations raised in the Hunterbrook story, and has since called into question the data and motivation behind the report and lawsuit.