Though a 2016 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in two consolidated cases said debt collection lawyers can be sued for excessive fees in foreclosure actions, the state Superior Court has now held in one of those cases that the plaintiffs still do not have a cause of action because their mortgage was too large to qualify under the version of the Pennsylvania Loan Interest and Protection Law in effect at the time it was executed.

A three-judge Superior Court panel consisting of Judges Mary Jane Bowes, Victor Stabile and Kate Ford Elliott held in the case of Johnson v. Phelan Hallinan & Schmieg that plaintiffs Edella and Eric Johnson did not have a cause of action because a 2008 amendment to the law, referred to in the opinion as “Act 6,” that increased the limit for what qualifies as a “residential mortgage” did not apply retroactively.