Competent Legal Counsel Comes Forward Hearing of the Ruling of Judge

On 7th January a ruling has been given that will most probably impact on the banking industry as a whole. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that Wells Fargo together with U.S. Bancorp had foreclosed wrongly on two houses because the banks failed to prove that they were the owner of the mortgages at the time of initiating foreclosure. Max Weinstein, of Wilmer Hale Legal Servicers Center (clinical instructor) acted on behalf of one of the victims – Antonio Ibanez.

Weinstein said that the banks had filed the case because they had concerns about publishing the foreclosure notice in a wrong paper. The notices should have been published in the local paper Springfield but instead it was published in the Boston Globe. The banks sent the notices to the properties but that of Ibanez was empty. Ibanez did not, as such, reply to the complaint; he had been however defaulting on the loan.

Judge Keith Long of Massachusetts Land Court came to notice that the assignments of these mortgages, based on which the mortgages were being foreclosed upon were dated after the taking place of the foreclosure; thus his ruling were not in favour of the banks, despite the fact that Ibanez had been defaulting.

Weinstein showed interest in the case when he came to know of the decisions of Judge Long. He contacted Ibanez because he anticipated that the banks would appeal against the decision; as such Ibanez would require assistance from competent legal counsel.

The banks did appeal but the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the ruling of the lower court stating that the mortgages had been acquired by the banks only after the sale in foreclosure; thus it had no legal standing to foreclose at the sale time.

Weinstein said, "This decision will affect thousands of homeowners across the state who have lost their home for foreclosure to entities that had no right to conduct the foreclosure auction. Many of the homeowners don’t have the resources and abilities to challenge these kinds of practices without counsel, but hopefully this decision will give some aid to people who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to challenge foreclosures".

Following the ruling the stocks of both the banks fell. The banking group was concentrating on the case with bated breath because house owners across America have thrown the gauntlet at the banks challenging foreclosures done improperly and illegally.