Almost a year after Premier Mortgage Resources filed a complaint against Canopy Mortgage over an alleged poaching scheme, the lenders reached a settlement.
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The companies anticipate they will submit a joint stipulation of dismissal with prejudice within 45 days, according to a document filed Friday in a Washington federal court.
“We’re pleased to have reached a resolution and bring this matter to a close,” Premier CEO Cory Swain told National Mortgage News. “Our employees are our most valued resource, and we will always act in their best interest while continuing to uphold the highest standards of integrity and service.”
Canopy nor its attorneys responded to a request for comment.
The poaching accusations stemmed from a
The initial complaint identified 10 unnamed defendants, but specifically blamed a father, Curt Lillibridge, a former area manager at Premier, and his three sons, Riley, Kiel and Cameron, who also worked for Premier as either a branch manager or loan officer.
The Lillibridges abruptly resigned from their roles at Premier in December 2023 and began working for Utah-based Canopy immediately after. The family allegedly encouraged its colleagues to do the same before and after the Lillibridges’ own resignation, Premier said.
This forced Premier to shut down its branch in Everett, Washington, due to a lack of employees, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also said Canopy, with help from the Lillibridges, misappropriated Premier’s confidential customer loan information, which led to some loans that started with Premier closing with Canopy, resulting in millions of dollars lost for the Idaho-based lender.
Premier accused defendants of tortious interference with business expectancy and employment contracts, as well as civil conspiracy, and sought money to cover the losses they suffered.
Canopy filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit a week later, arguing the complaint lacked evidence.
“Premier alleges its complex causes of action in a scant 16 paragraphs of ‘facts,'” the filing said. “Many of these allegations are on ‘information and belief.’ And none of them are supported by non-conclusory factual matter about what Canopy supposedly did, much less how it did anything improper.”
In September, a judge denied Canopy’s motion to dismiss and request to pause the case, citing that Canopy email credentials were granted to the Lillibridges before their resignation was submitted to Premier, which was enough smoke to suggest intentional interference, the filing said.
The amended complaint also alleged the Lilligans used the email access to transfer Premier’s customer leads and in-progress loans to Canopy.
In a response two weeks later, Canopy admitted to hiring the Lillibridges in December 2023, meeting with them earlier in the year to discuss potential employment and giving them email accounts after their offer letters were already signed. But the lender denied instructing the family to transfer loans from Premier and soliciting Premier’s employees. It also said any damages suffered were at the fault of Premier.
“If Premier was injured or damaged as alleged, some or all of Premier’s injuries or damages may have been proximately caused by Premier’s failure to mitigate, minimize or otherwise reduce its own damages,” the filing said. “Premier’s claims are barred in whole or in part because, on information and belief, its own conduct is at least as culpable as Canopy’s.”
Multiple lenders were the subject of poaching lawsuits this month, including Lower, the
Premier overlooks 62 branches, with 19 more coming soon, and nearly 400 loan officers. It originated $3.53 billion in loan volume in 2024, according to a Richey May analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. Canopy reported $2.2 billion in volume in 2024.