COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that borrowers can collect a $250 statutory penalty when lenders fail to timely record mortgage releases, but it blocked class-action lawsuits seeking those penalties for violations that occurred in 2020.
In a 6-1 decision issued Feb. 19, the court in Voss v. Quicken Loans, L.L.C. upheld an individual homeowner’s claim against Quicken Loans, now known as Rocket Mortgage, for recording a mortgage release 22 days past the 90-day deadline required under Ohio law.
The case centers on Ohio’s mortgage-release statute, R.C. 5301.36, which requires lenders to record a release with the county recorder within 90 days after a mortgage is paid off. If they fail to do so, borrowers or property owners may sue for a $250 penalty per violation without having to prove actual financial harm.
Samuel Voss purchased a home in Hamilton County in 2020. The transaction paid off the seller’s mortgage held by Quicken Loans, triggering the statutory deadline of May 5, 2020. The company recorded the release on May 27, 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many county offices faced operational disruptions.
Voss filed suit later that year in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, seeking the $250 penalty and pursuing the case as a class action on behalf of others whose mortgage releases were allegedly recorded late in 2020.
While the litigation was pending, the Ohio General Assembly amended the statute in 2023 to prohibit recovery of the $250 penalty through class-action lawsuits for violations that occurred in calendar year 2020. Individual lawsuits remain permitted.
Writing for the majority, Justice Daniel R. Hawkins said the legislature validly created a statutory right and remedy that does not require proof of actual damages. The court affirmed lower court rulings allowing Voss to recover the $250 penalty individually.
However, the justices reversed decisions certifying the case as a class action. The majority concluded that the 2023 amendment is remedial because it limits only the method of collecting damages rather than eliminating the underlying right. As a result, applying it retroactively does not violate the Ohio Constitution’s prohibition on retroactive laws, the court held.
The case was remanded with instructions to decertify the class.
Judge Jill Flagg Lanzinger of the Ninth District Court of Appeals, sitting for Justice Joseph T. Deters, agreed that Voss is entitled to the $250 penalty but dissented on the class-action issue. She argued that barring class actions conflicts with Ohio’s civil procedure rules and raises concerns about legislative intrusion into the judiciary’s authority over court procedures.
The decision allows individual borrowers to pursue statutory penalties for untimely mortgage releases but shields lenders from broader class-action liability tied to pandemic-era delays in 2020.