A new lawsuit brought by a mortgage lender against residential real estate closing firm Dickason Law Group and its owner, Matt Dickason, raises more questions about shortfalls in the firm's escrow accounts. 

BrandMortgage filed suit in June against Dickason and his firm in an effort to recover $449,000 that BrandMortgage says it wired to the firm on May 6 to cover a mortgage refinancing. It claims the money subsequently disappeared.

At that point Dickason Law's title insurers, Investors Title Insurance Co. and North American Title Insurance Co., had already revoked their agency agreements with the firm–on April 23 and April 24, respectively—after an audit by Investors Title uncovered “financial irregularities” in the firm's IOLTA account, according to lawsuits that each filed in May. Dickason Law shut down soon after. 

The title insurers' suits allege that there are at least $1.6 million in shortfalls in Dickason Law's escrow account. The suits also say the firm around April stopped paying out mortgage funds, which has triggered title claims against the insurers. A forensic audit of Dickason Law has ensued.

BrandMortgage's June 20 suit against Dickason and his firm alleges fraud, malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty. Dickason's lawyer, Matt Pearce of Stovash, Case & Tingley, declined via email to comment on pending litigation.

According to BrandMortgage's complaint, the mortgage lender had used Dickason Law for about six years to handle loan closings.

BrandMortgage is also suing one of Dickason Law's former title insurers, North American Title Insurance, plus two independent lawyers: Satonja Scott, who handled the loan closing, and Kathryn Cigelske, who took on some of Dickason Law's files on April 24, including the $449,000 mortgage refinancing, after the title insurers dropped Dickason Law.

In an interview, Cigelske said she and her firm have no affiliation with Dickason Law. Her firm acted as the disbursement agent for the loan funds, because Dickason Law could no longer write title insurance, she said.

Scott, a contract closing attorney representing Dickason Law, handled the April 30 closing for the mortgage refinancing. “I was surprised and disheartened to learn of the allegations of financial misconduct of [Dickason Law],” she said in an email to the Daily Report. “As a closing attorney, I was not aware of or involved with the escrow accounts at either firm and expect to be fully cleared of all claims.” 

After the closing, BrandMortgage wired the $449,000 in loan funds on May 6 to Dickason Law's trust account at SunTrust Bank, according to its complaint. 

But on May 16, the complaint says, a representative from Cigelske's firm notified BrandMortgage that the firm had not received the closing proceeds. 

“This is pure chaos—if DLG [Dickason Law Group] was handling the closing, why were agents of Cigelske involved in the wiring of the proceeds?” BrandMortgage's lawyer, Corrie Hall of James-Bates-Brannan-Groover, wrote in May 30 demand letters to Dickason's lawyer, Pearce, and to Cigelske. 

“Even more problematic, no one notified Brand of what was actually happening or who was handling the closing,” Hall wrote in the demand letters.

According to BrandMortgage's complaint, in their respective responses to the demand letters Dickason's lawyer told Hall that there was a shortfall in Dickason Law's trust account and Cigelske denied that she was liable for the missing loan proceeds.

Cigelske told the Daily Report that she, like several other Atlanta real estate closing attorneys, accepted certain files from Dickason Law around April 24, when the firm lost its ability to write title insurance.

Documents that Cigelske supplied to the Daily Report show that a Dickason representative on April 24 sent BrandMortgage new wiring instructions for the mortgage refinance loan, so the $449,000 would go to Cigelske's escrow account.

But BrandMortgage instead wired the funds on May 6 to Dickason Law's escrow account.

When Real Title Solutions, Cigelske's title affiliate, notified BrandMortgage on May 16 that it had not received the $449,000 and thus could not disburse the loan, it also suggested that BrandMortgage recall the wire sent in error to Dickason Law, according to Cigelske's documents.

The next day BrandMortgage filed a claim with North American Title. However, North American Title responded by notifying BrandMortgage that it had revoked its agency agreement with Dickason Law on April 24, before the loan closing.  

BrandMortgage funded the loan a second time on May 21 to protect the borrowers–and did so through Cigelske's firm. That loan went through.