Foreclosure Class Action to the 3rd circuit: Countrywide and Wells Fargo

December 17, 2010 -  Earlier this month, fed up homeowners banded together and bought forth a class action lawsuit with an amended complaint against Countrywide (which BAC has taken over) Wells  Fargo and the law firm Phelan Hallinan & Schmieg. The Amended Complain in the class action  is an effort to have the judges in the 3rd circuit recognize the overcharges in foreclosure fees and to address the fraud in document preparation such affidavits and assignments. If successful this action will reverse an order by U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones II of Philadelphia, who denied the homeowners’ motion to file an Amended Complaint in a foreclosure fraud class action. The action is entitled Rhodes v. Diamond, Case No. 10-3431 (3d. Cir.).

The Amended Complaint, first proposed on January 15, 2010, also alleges that defendants systematically used fraudulent affidavits and bogus mortgage assignments to hastily prosecute mortgage foreclosure actions in the absence of any party with legal standing to sue.

The proposed Amended Complaint seeks relief against defendants under the Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and state law.

“In recent months, public officials, commentators and citizens have been appalled to learn about institutionalized fraudulent practices by mortgage servicers and law firms that have created a frightening ‘foreclosure crisis’ in this country,” John G. Narkin, a lawyer for the homeowners said. “This appeal demonstrates that our judicial system, whose function is to enforce the law and provide justice to those who need it, has at times abdicated its responsibilities and ignored fundamental rights of foreclosure fraud victims.”

The appeal also seeks reversal of the lower court’s disposition of an earlier, narrowly circumscribed complaint, which was dismissed on technical grounds involving the U.S. bankruptcy laws, which are unrelated to the more pervasive fraudulent schemes alleged in the proposed Amended Complaint.

Details about this case and its background are available at http://www.bhn-law.com/consumer_rights.        

This appeal demonstrates that our judicial system, whose function is to enforce the law and provide justice to those who need it, has at times abdicated its responsibilities and ignored fundamental rights of foreclosure fraud victims.

source: press release