|
Article Excerpt
Early this year, homeowners in Cleveland filed a class action against financial titan Deutsche Bank, saying the bank's attempts to foreclose on them were illegal because it can't prove it holds the mortgage notes entitling it to payment.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The complaint charges that Deutsche Bank filed the foreclosure motions under false pretenses, lacks standing, and has evinced "a pattern of corrupt and illegal activity" that flies in the face of state law and the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The defendants include the three law firms that Deutsche Bank used to process the foreclosure filings. (Whittiker v. Deutsche Bank Natl. Trust Co., No. 1:2008cv0030 (N.D. Ohio filed Feb. 7, 2008).)
The lawsuit is part of a new approach to foreclosure defense. Because of lenders' bundling and reselling of mortgages, notes are often lost, misplaced, or corrupted. As a result, many lenders can't prove that they are owed payments and entitled to foreclose.
"It's a result of the securitization process," said Jim Rosenthal, a lawyer in Cleveland who represents the Whittiker plaintiffs. "By the time you get to foreclosure, the mortgage is so split up from the bundling and unbundling that often you can't find the original note. Some people insist that you will even find the same mortgage sold in several different pools. In some cases, the original lender has gone out of business."
"Losing a note is like losing cash," said Mitchell Roth, a lawyer in Sherman Oaks, California. "The right to payment depends, with limited exceptions, upon...
|
|
More articles from Trial
What we can learn from hot worms, or why it's OK to be a "workaholic'., December 01, 2008
Vaccine suit not preempted, Georgia high court says., December 01, 2008
Supreme Court opens term with tobacco preemption case., December 01, 2008
Countrywide settles states' predatory-lending claims., December 01, 2008
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
|
