AMERICAN EAGLE CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT WEBSITE
Greetings! This website is authorized by the United States District Court for the District of Oregon to facilitate a settlement between the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and a Class of Oregon investors who purchased promissory notes or deposited money with certain American Eagle Mortgage (“AEM”) funds. The settlement provides for payment of $4.5 million by Davis Wright Tremaine of which some $3,677,000 will be for the benefit of the Class of Oregon investors.
This website is administered by the Claims Administrator, Transeth & Associates, and attorneys from Larkins Vacura Kayser LLP and Esler, Stephens & Buckley LLP who represent the Oregon Class of investors. Contact information is at the bottom of this page.
You are a member of the Class if you are an Oregon citizen who purchased, or received a transfer of, an investment in one of the AEM Funds and who is owed money with respect to their AEM Fund investment. The Class also includes each person who is a co-owner of an investment with Oregon citizens mentioned in the preceding sentence. You are not a settlement Class Member if you are: (1) a Defendant in the lawsuit; (2) a person who sold AEM Fund investments to any member of the Class; (3) a person who participated or materially aided in the sale of an AEM Fund investment to any member of the Class; or (4) an immediate family member of any of the following persons: (a) Ross Miles, (b) Maureen Wiles, (c) a person who sold AEM Fund investments to any member of the Class, or (d) a person who participated or materially aided in the sale of AEM Fund investments to any member of the Class.
Notice of the settlement and claims process was mailed on January 19, 2024 to the last-known addresses of potential Class members. If you think you are a member of the Class and did not receive the Notice, please contact Christine Ortez of Larkins Vacura Kayser at cortez@lvklaw.com.
UPDATE October 14, 2024:
Good news--the class settlement with the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT) described below has gone through all the procedural formalities necessary to clear the way for funding of the settlement by DWT, and that funding has now occurred. The Settlement Fund is administered by a Court-appointed Claims Administrator, Norm Transeth, whose email is norm@ntranseth.com. Claimants can expect Mr. Transeth to be in touch with you very shortly about your distribution.
UPDATE July 26, 2024:
Both the global settlement with the Receiver, Riverview Bank and Pacific Premier Bank, and the Class’s settlement with the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine (“DWT”) are getting closer to being finalized. Here’s a status report on the progress of the many inter-related steps necessary to get to the finish line.
The Receivership Court in Clark County has approved the global settlement and the U.S. District Court in Portland also approved the global settlement in the form of an Order dismissing the claims against Pacific Premier Bank and Riverview Bank based on the global settlement. The Banks have withdrawn (actually, never formally filed) their intended objections to the proposed claims bar in the Class’s DWT settlement. The parties in the related Beattie state court case have also stipulated to a dismissal of the claims against the Banks.
We filed motions for dismissal of the appeals we filed in the Washington Court of Appeals of the August 31 Order approving the Receiver’s settlement with the Banks and the March 7 Order approving the Receiver's motion for contempt, and the Washington Court of Appeals has dismissed the appeals.
As for the Class’s DWT settlement, the US District Court issued an Order approving the settlement and, as part of the settlement, also issued a Partial Judgment of dismissal with prejudice of the Class’s claims against DWT. We have requested the Court enter a form of Partial Judgment and Claims Bar Order that was specifically negotiated as part of our settlement with DWT which we hope Judge Hernández will sign quickly.
Once that Partial Judgment has been entered, and assuming no appeal is filed (unlikely), DWT has 30 days to deposit the money in a settlement account and the Claims Administrator can begin the distribution process. These Class settlement funds will be distributed independently of the Receiver’s distributions of money from its settlement with the Banks. We don’t control that process but have every reason to believe it will begin to happen fairly quickly.
UPDATE June 6, 2024:
More good news. The Class Representatives and the two defendant banks, Riverview Bank and Pacific Premier Bank, along with the American Eagle Receiver, have reached a global settlement. While there are multiple steps ahead necessary to finalize it, including obtaining court approvals, if completed it will remove the final obstacles to a distribution of funds to investors from both this Class Action and the Receivership. For information on the Receivership and its distribution plans visit https://aeminvestors.com/
UPDATE April 29, 2024:
Good news! Today US Magistrate Judge Jeff Armistead issued a “Findings and Recommendation” that the Class Action be formally certified and the settlement with the Davis Wright Tremaine law firm (DWT) should be approved, along with related rulings to certify the settlement Class, appoint Class Counsel, and grant Class Counsel’s motion for an award of attorney fees and costs. Magistrate Judge Armistead also issued a separate “Finding and Recommendation” that the joint motion of the Class Reps and DWT for entry of a contribution claims bar order should also be granted.
UPDATE March 25, 2024:
Since the January 19 mailing, we are pleased to report that the Claims Administrator has received claim forms from every known member of the Class except for three investors who expect to have their forms in shortly due to unusual circumstances. The deadlines for filing objections or requests for exclusions have passed and only two requests for exclusion were received, and these were from investors who are not eligible for a settlement payment through the Class. The only objections to the settlement were filed by Pacific Premier Bank and Riverview Community Bank. The banks objected to the portion of the settlement that says in the event the banks are found liable for investor losses (as plaintiffs have alleged), they would be barred from seeking money (called “contribution”) from other liable parties in proportion to each party’s relative share of liability, as opposed to having the banks’ share of liability reduced by the dollar amount of investors’ recoveries from those other parties as the settlement currently provides.
A hearing at which our motion for final approval of the settlement, the banks’ objections and related matters was heard on Thursday, April 4, in US District Court in Portland, and the settlement was approved. See update for April 29, above, for details.
For more information about the lawsuit and this settlement please read the documents linked below:
• Notice of Class Action Settlement
• Motion for Preliminary Approval of Settlement of Partial Settlement
• Supplemental Motion for Preliminary Approval of Partial Settlement and Updated Notice Form
• Reply in Support of Motion for Preliminary Approval of Partial Settlement
• Amended Order Preliminarily Approving Settlement
• Class Representatives’ Motion for Final Approval of Class Action Settlement
• Class Counsel’s Motion for Award of Attorney Fees and Costs
• Class Counsel’s Supplemental Memorandum in Support of Motion for Award of Attorney Fees and Costs
Contact information:
Transeth & Associates LLC
Norm Transeth, Claims Administrator
5331 S Macadam Avenue, Ste 258 PMB 1024
Portland, OR 97239-3871
norm@ntranseth.com
Telephone: (503) 708-8030
Larkins Vacura Kayser, LLP
www.lvklaw.com
121 SW Morrison Street, Suite 700
Portland, OR 97204
Telephone: (503) 222-4424
Esler Stephens & Buckley, LLP
www.eslerstephens.com
121 SW Morrison Street, Suite 700
Portland, OR 97204
Telephone: (503) 223-1510
Attorneys and Paralegals who are working on the case that are available to answer your questions are listed below along with their email address:
John Rake, Attorney: jrake@lvklaw.com
John Stephens, Attorney: stephens@eslerstephens.com
Michael Esler, Attorney: esler@eslerstephens.com
Chris Kayser, Attorney: cjkayser@lvklaw.com
Gary Hardiman, Senior Paralegal: hardiman@eslerstephens.com
Christine Ortez, Paralegal: cortez@lvklaw.com