A damning new report from a federal watchdog shows that 19 state housing finance agencies wasted millions of dollars that should have gone to struggling homeowners as part of the government’s Hardest Hit Fund program. The report, published Friday by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, showed that […]
Should our judges be skewing our laws in favor of after-the-fact relief to the “community of lenders,” as one appellate court judge put it? Yale Law Journal published an interesting comment about judicial law-making in the foreclosure context. In discussing the context of judicial foreclosure and res judicata finality principles, the authors said: When addressing faulty foreclosures, […]
See Gretchen Morgenson’s article in the New York Times for more details. A court ruled late Friday that California is obligated to return $331 million that it took from a fund designated to help troubled borrowers but instead used to plug holes in the state’s budget. The ruling, by a state court judge in Sacramento, […]
A new investor lawsuit filed against Nationstar was reported by Reuters, in an article called, “Securities lawsuit says Nationstar concealed illicit practices,” by Dena Aubin on June 5, 2015. The case is City of St. Clair Shores Police and Fire Retirement System v. Nationstar Mortgage Holdings et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, […]
Yesterday was a good day for homeowners in Arizona, yet in a very quiet way. Often in the law, it is the seemingly bone-dry incremental progress that can change the whole chess game. I think most lawyers have expended some effort trying to explain their exuberance over a seemingly tiny development to audiences including our […]
In Morgan AZ Financial, LLC v Gotses, the Arizona Appellate Court reversed a summary judgment for the “lender,” holding that common-law defenses to a borrower’s liability on the note survive the trustee’s sale, despite the “waiver” provisions of ARS 33-811(c). This is good news for borrowers who are facing deficiency actions because they aren’t covered by […]
One of the country’s largest banks designed a specific, formal process for falsifying paperwork when its foreclosure efforts were impeded by missing documents, according to documents filed in a New York court earlier this week. Naked Capitalism: New Lawsuit Alleges Wells Fargo Has Manual for Mass Fabrication of Foreclosure Documents NY Post Article: Wells Fargo Made Up On-Demand […]
For those following the Stauffer case, discussed here, the Arizona Supreme Court denied review of the case. That means that Stauffer stands as decided by the Arizona Court of Appeals. RE: KARL STAUFFER et ux v US BANK/FIRST AMERICAN TITLE Arizona Supreme Court No. CV-13-0296-PR Court of Appeals, Division One No. 1 CA-CV 12-0073 and No. […]
Basic fairness prevails in the Arizona Appellate Court’s new decision in Steinberger v. OneWest Bank, et. al. Attorney Barbara Forde brought this action for her client Steinberger as a special action after the bulk of her case was dismissed by the trial court. A special action can be brought when speediness is essential, and there is […]
From the Arizona Republic: A newly released federal audit found that Arizona has one of the worst records of any state in dispersing federal housing aid to struggling homeowners. The audit, released late Monday, found that Arizona distributed the second lowest percentage of federal “Hardest Hit” mortgage aid directly to homeowners, despite being one the […]
Beth Findsen Attorney 