The judge did not agree on a timeline for the trial in the TCB-Ginnie Mae case

The parties involved in the interlocutory case Texas Capital Bank (TCB), i US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Ginnie Mae in a dispute involving Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-backed Securities (HMBS) have been advised to prepare for trial in September 2025. This is according to court filings reviewed by HousingWireReverse Mortgage Daily (RMD).

Magistrate Judge Lee Ann Reno of US District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo advised the plaintiffs of the revised scheduling timeframe for the potential lawsuit, assuming it is not resolved before that point.

Pre-trial planning has also been changed, with an earlier deadline of December 2024 for each side to form a panel of experts to call for evidence. The final deadline for expert witnesses comes within the first two months of 2025. Any filings sought by either party regarding the qualifications of any expert witnesses or motions for summary judgment must be submitted by May 12, 2025.

All factual discovery – a process in which lawyers for each side gather evidence through public proceedings, interviews, submissions and other methods – must be completed by March 14, 2025. The parties will have the opportunity to mediate the case before April 25, 2025. ” and who can meet in person to discuss any possible settlement before trial.

Mediation must be “private, confidential and with due process and discovery,” and no witness in the case can participate, the judge said. The arbitration deadline is notable because it will come more than three months into the next president’s term, when there is likely to be a different leadership team at HUD and Ginnie Mae.

It is unclear whether the second administration led by Donald Trump will have installed Ginnie Mae’s presidency at this point – something the first Trump administration failed to do during their time – or whether the administration of Kamala Harris will retain or replace the current leadership of Biden at HUD. or Ginnie Mae.

Reno ordered the parties to be ready for trial on September 19, 2025. This is not the start date of the trial but a decision point at which everything else in the planning process must be completed. After that point, the district judge will issue a separate order regarding the actual date the trial will begin.

Earlier this month, a government-led effort to change the venue of the trial was denied by presiding Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who disagreed with the government’s contention that the clause allowing for a change of venue – applied between TCB and the defaulted reverse mortgage. creditor – used in case details.

TCB sued Ginnie Mae in October 2023, alleging that the state-owned company was “wiping out, without consideration, TCB’s first priority dependent on tens of millions of dollars in collateral from TCB. [FHA]- sponsored [HECM] system.”

TCB denies that this was after Ginnie Mae allegedly turned to TCB to avoid “disastrous disruption of the HECM program.” In return for the loan to RMF, TCB allegedly received the first loan from a “certain HECM collateral,” which the bank described as “very important” since without it, the only collateral TCB could rely on was an insolvent company.

Ginnie Mae previously wanted the case dismissed, but the presiding judge allowed most of the case to proceed and dismissed only small parts of the original complaint.

The application deadline was originally extended to early 2025 before the amended executive order, but it is unclear whether the current leaders at HUD and Ginnie Mae will still be in office when those dates arrive. Besides career officers, other leaders are appointed by the President of the United States. Other positions, including the leadership of HUD and the president of Ginnie Mae, must be approved by the US Senate before taking office.

But following President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for re-election, a new president is now guaranteed to be in office in early 2025. This would bring new leaders to HUD and Ginnie Mae regardless of the winner. If elected, Vice President Harris will have the latitude to keep current HUD leaders on board, or choose to establish a new slate of housing leaders. He did not sign intentions regarding cabinet officers or other positions that require presidential appointments.

In the event that former President Trump wins the election, there is a good chance that he will choose to install new leadership teams in all appointed government positions.

The case is closely watched by the reverse mortgage industry. Ginnie Mae’s HMBS program is the key to liquidity and investment in the entire industry, as it allows the pooling of reverse mortgages for sale to investors. The lawsuit continues amid the development of Ginnie Mae’s new HMBS program.

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