Samuel C. Bodurtha

Samuel Bodurtha focuses his practice on the representation of mortgage lenders and servicers in individual and class action claims involving residential mortgage loan origination, transfers and assignments, and foreclosure in Rhode Island and Massachusetts state and federal courts. These matters include cases arising from allegations of mortgage fraud, predatory lending, and violations of consumer protection statutes such as TILA, RESPA, HOEPA, HPA, and FCRA. Mr. Bodurtha also represents lenders, servicers and their agents in municipal tax sales and redemptions, in title clearing actions, and in response to code violation proceedings.

Mr. Bodurtha also represents insurance companies in coverage matters, providing coverage opinions, pursuing declaratory actions related to coverage disputes and in defense of breach of contract and bad faith actions. Finally, Mr. Bodurtha represents attorneys in defense of professional liability matters.

Mr. Bodurtha joined Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in June 2008, where he is a member of the firm's Asian American Affinity Network. Previously he was an associate with Higgins, Cavanagh and Cooney, LLP, in Providence, Rhode Island, where he handled a vast array of cases involving products liability, premises liability, transportation law, insurance coverage, corporate successor liability and insurance defense.

While in law school, Mr. Bodurtha worked as a research assistant to Dean Gerald Korngold. Prior to law school, he was a case assistant at Goodwin Procter, LLP, in Boston.

• Mortgage Bankers Association
• Rhode Island Bar Association

• Recognized as "Rising Star" by New England Super Lawyers magazine, 2014

Mr. Bodurtha handles all phases of litigation in state and federal courts in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

A selection of Mr. Bodurtha's representative matters includes:

• Obtained defense verdict in a complaint challenging foreclosure and pre-foreclosure loan modification review that included causes of action for fraud, breach of contract, unfair and deceptive trade practices, and violations of the California Homeowners Bill of Rights. (Los Angeles Superior Court, California).

• Obtained summary judgment to enforce a lost note and authorize foreclosure under Massachusetts law over borrower's objection and opposition to the lost note affidavit evidence and legal right to enforce. (United States District Court, Massachusetts).

• Obtained summary judgment in defense of a lawsuit claiming fraud and unfair and deceptive trade practices in the accounting of borrowers' modified mortgage loan payments. (United States District Court, Massachusetts).

• Obtained summary judgment in an FDCPA lawsuit where the borrowers claimed wrongful debt collection practices on allegations that their mortgage loan was void from the start because the loan originator was not licensed or approved by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (United States District Court, Massachusetts).

• Obtained dismissal of a complaint for lack of standing in which the mortgagor challenged foreclosure on grounds that the loan transferred into trust in violation of the Pooling and Servicing Agreement. (United States District Court, Rhode Island).

• Obtained summary judgment in defense of a contested foreclosure action in which the borrower challenged the authority of the foreclosing mortgagee based upon claims of an invalid assignment of mortgage and improper foreclosure. (United States District Court, Rhode Island).

• Obtained dismissal of a complaint filed under the federal Homeowners Protection Act, for which class certification was sought, on the grounds that the act's disclosure requirements did not extend from loan originator or apply to a subsequent holder and assignee of the mortgage loan. (United States District Court, Rhode Island).

• Obtained dismissal of a complaint to quiet title and enjoin foreclosure on the grounds that the borrower lacked standing to challenge the assignment of mortgage and failed to allege facts sufficient to contest the origination, transfer and possession of a promissory note. (United States District Court, Rhode Island).

• Obtained summary judgment in defense of a complaint to rescind a mortgage for alleged violations of the Massachusetts Consumer Credit Cost Disclosure Act on the grounds that borrowers' receipt of one Notice of Right to Cancel satisfied truth in lending disclosure requirements at origination. (United States District Court, Massachusetts).

• Obtained dissolution of an automatic injunction of foreclosure and eviction actions imposed on all contested foreclosure actions filed in the Rhode Island federal court and reformation of a mandatory settlement program following a successful appeal and mandamus petition filed in the First Circuit Court of Appeals. (United States District Court, Rhode Island).

• Kelly v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as Trustee, 789 F.Supp.2d 262 (D. Mass. 2011)
• Financial Resources Network, Inc. v. Brown & Brown, Inc., 754 F.Supp.2d 128 (D. Mass. 2011)

Mr. Bodurtha's presentations include:

• "Legal Ethics: Top Mistakes that Lead to Malpractice," National Business Institute Seminar, Providence, Rhode Island, June 2018

• "Professionalism in the Workplace," Roger Williams University School of Law, Bristol, Rhode Island, March 2018

• "Professionalism in the Work Place," Roger Williams University School of Law, Bristol, Rhode Island, March 2015

• "Legal Ethics of Email," National Business Institute Seminar, Providence, Rhode Island, June 2014

• "Ghostwriting and the Attorney-Client Relationship," West LegalEdcenter, Webinar, Boston, Massachusetts, January 2013
• "Professionalism in the Workplace," Roger Williams University School of Law, Bristol, Rhode Island, March 2013
• "Insurance Law 2012: Current Case Law, Market Trends and Legal Updates," National Business Institute Seminar, Providence, Rhode Island, March 2012
• "Electronic and Personal Connections: Risk Management and Ethical Obligations in Starting and Ending an Attorney-Client Relationship," Rhode Island Bar Association Annual Meeting, Providence, Rhode Island, June 2011
• "Insurance Law from A to Z," National Business Institute Seminar, Providence, Rhode Island, March 2011

Mr. Bodurtha is a co-author of the Rhode Island chapter in the first edition of the American Bar Association's 50-State Survey of Legal Malpractice Law, a collection of state-by-state articles on legal malpractice and related torts.

During law school, Mr. Bodurtha assisted Dean Gerald Korngold in the research and analysis of state and federal case law for the republishing of the textbook "Private Land Use Arrangements." He also assisted with the editing of the textbook "Property Stories," which was edited by Deans Korngold and Morriss, both faculty members at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

He is the author of "Getting Clients Through the Internet: Understanding and Complying with the Ethical Rules that Apply," in The Quarter Hour®, a publication of Aon Affinity Insurance Services, Inc., September 2011.

Mr. Bodurtha serves as co-editor of Hinshaw's Consumer Financial Services blog, hinshawcfs.com

Sam lives in Rehoboth, Massachusetts with his wife, their two children and a Bernese Mountain dog.