Glaski vs Bank of America NA et al – FOR PUBLICATION

Glaski vs Bank of America NA et al – FOR PUBLICATION

Edstrom_MortgageSecuritization_POSTER_17_x_22_v4_1By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

On August 8, 2013 the Fifth Appellate District in the Court of Appeal of the State of California ordered the Thomas A. Glaski vs Bank of America, NA et al decision published, stating:

 

 

As the nonpublished opinion filed on July 31, 2013, in the above entitled matter hereby meets the standards for publication specified in the California Rules of Court, rule 8.1105(c), it is ordered that the opinion be certified for publication in the Official Reports.

Based on the importance of this case, the text of the July 31, 2013 ruling is listed verbatim:

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THOMAS A. GLASKI,Plaintiff and Appellant,v.

BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION et al.

Defendants and Respondents.

F064556

(Super. Ct. No. 09CECG03601)

OPINION

 

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Fresno County.  Alan M. Simpson, Judge.

Law Offices of Richard L. Antognini and Richard L. Antognini; Law Offices of Catarina M. Benitez and Catarina M. Benitez, for Plaintiff and Appellant.

AlvaradoSmith, Theodore E. Bacon, and Mikel A. Glavinovich, for Defendants and Respondents.

-ooOoo-

INTRODUCTION

            Before Washington Mutual Bank, FA (WaMu) was seized by federal banking regulators in 2008, it made many residential real estate loans and used those loans as collateral for mortgage-backed securities.[1]  Many of the loans went into default, which led to nonjudicial foreclosure proceedings.  Some of the foreclosures generated lawsuits, which raised a wide variety of claims.  The allegations that the instant case shares with some of the other lawsuits are that (1) documents related to the foreclosure contained forged signatures of Deborah Brignac and (2) the foreclosing entity was not the true owner of the loan because its chain of ownership had been broken by a defective transfer of the loan to the securitized trust established for the mortgage-backed securities.  Here, the specific defect alleged is that the attempted transfers were made after the closing date of the securitized trust holding the pooled mortgages and therefore the transfers were ineffective.

In this appeal, the borrower contends the trial court erred by sustaining defendants’ demurrer as to all of his causes of action attacking the nonjudicial foreclosure.  We conclude that, although the borrower’s allegations are somewhat confusing and may contain contradictions, he nonetheless has stated a wrongful foreclosure claim under the lenient standards applied to demurrers.  We conclude that a borrower may challenge the securitized trust’s chain of ownership by alleging the attempts to transfer the deed of trust to the securitized trust (which was formed under New York law) occurred after the trust’s closing date.  Transfers that violate the terms of the trust instrument are void under New York trust law, and borrowers have standing to challenge void assignments of their loans even though they are not a party to, or a third party beneficiary of, the assignment agreement.

We therefore reverse the judgment of dismissal and remand for further proceedings.

Continue reading “Glaski vs Bank of America NA et al – FOR PUBLICATION”

Perils of Pooling: OneWest

Neil_GarfieldPerils of Pooling: OneWest

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

The following article was posted by Neil F. Garfield of livinglies.wordpress.com and comes from the following URL: http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/perils-of-pooling-onewest/

Apparently my article yesterday hit a nerve. NO I wasn’t saying that the only problems were with BofA and Chase. OneWest is another example. Keep in mind that the sole source of information to regulators and the courts are the ONLY people who understand mergers and acquisitions. So it is a little like one of those TV shows where the only way they can get an arrest and conviction is for the perpetrator or suspect to confess. In this case, they “confess” all kinds of things to gain credibility and then lead the agencies and judicial system down a rabbit hole which is now a well trodden path. So many people have gone down that hole that most people that is the way to get to the truth. It isn’t. It is part of a carefully constructed series of complex conflicting lies designed carefully by some very smart lawyers who understand not just the law but the way the law works. The latter is how they are getting away with it.

Continue reading “Perils of Pooling: OneWest”

Perils of Pooling

Neil_GarfieldPerils of Pooling

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

The following article was posted by Neil F. Garfield of livinglies.wordpress.com and comes from the following URL: http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/perils-of-pooling/

Perils of Pooling

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Neil Garfield

We hold these truths to be self evident: that Chase never acquired any loans from Washington Mutual and that Bank of America never acquired any loans from Countrywide.  A review of the merger documents approved by the FDIC reveals that neither Chase nor Bank of America wanted to assume any liabilities in connection with the lending operations of Washington Mutual or Countrywide, respectively. The loans were expressly left out of the agreement which is available for everyone to see on the FDIC website in the reading room.

Continue reading “Perils of Pooling”

BB&T Fraudulently Declares Default – Florida Court Orders FDIC Payments From Loss-Share Agreements to be Credited to Borrowers Loan

BB&T Fraudulently Declares Default – Florida Court Orders FDIC Payments From Loss-Share Agreements to be Credited to Borrowers Loan

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

Thanks to Neil F. Garfield and the LivingLies Blog for this ruling.   The following are excerpts from Judge Levens orders.

Findings of Fact

This case involves a $5,182,128.00 commercial loan made by Colonial Bank to Kraz for the purpose of building and developing a mini-storage and flex space warehouse in Hillsborough County, Florida. Kearney and Harris signed limited personal guaranties of payment and performance and injected in excess of 2 million dollars of cash/equity into the venture. This subject loan was one of several loans made by Colonial Bank to Kearney and Harris and related entities with multiple other guarantors, but the subject loan was not tied to or related to any other such loans.

The terms of the subject loan provided for payment of interest only for the first twentyfour (24) months. Plaintiff was required to provide written notice of the change from interest-only payments to principal-and-interest payment, but, for whatever reason, Plaintiff never provided such notice. Colonial, due to its own internal financial distress, and while Defendants were current on all payments, began improperly demanding that Defendants make curtailment payments on the loan. Colonial improperly based such curtailment demands on the status of other, unrelated loans (which happened to have a variety of principals, obligators, guarantors, etc.).

Colonial was shut down by the Alabama State Banking Department and the FDIC was appointed its Receiver. The FDIC then assigned and sold the assets of Colonial to Plaintiff through a Purchase and Assumption Agreement (“PSA”), which makes Plaintiff the lawful owner and holder of the subject loan documents.

The evidence adduced at trial and considered by the court demonstrated that Plaintiff breached it duties of good faith and fair dealing in its contractual relationship with Defendants. The evidence also demonstrated that Plaintiff was motivated to behave in such as manner as a direct result of the PSA; that is, Plaintiff stood to profit by declaring a fraudulent default under the subject loan, collecting from the FDIC under the PSA for such default, and then enforcing the subject loan against Defendants, and retaining the property until such time as a real estate turnaround occurred in hopes to dispose of the property at the peak of the market. In fact, Mr. Bruni testified that Plaintiff may have already applied to the FDIC for a loss share payment on this loan. And Defendants’ expert, Jim Howard, explained that it was possible Plaintiff could have already applied for and received a payment from the FDIC on this loan, perhaps in an amount as high as $1,800,000.00. Notably, Plaintiff nowhere credited such potential payment from the FDIC against the amounts sought in the instant litigation; thereby giving the impression that Plaintiff might be “double dipping”, and possibly “triple dipping” if market conditions favorably change and the property likewise increases in value. Continue reading “BB&T Fraudulently Declares Default – Florida Court Orders FDIC Payments From Loss-Share Agreements to be Credited to Borrowers Loan”

Texas Ropes One In: Motion to Dismiss Denied

Texas Ropes One In: Motion to Dismiss Denied

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.
http://www.dtc-systems.net

From April Charney:

…”If the holder of the deed of trust does not own or hold the note, the deed of trust serves no purpose, is impotent, and cannot be a vehicle for depriving the grantor of the deed of trust of ownership of the property described in the deed of trust….[finding that]…inherent in the procedural steps outlined in the Texas Property Code is the assumption that whatever entity qualifies as a “mortgagee” either owns the note or is serving as an agent for the owner or holder of the note; and, the statute assumes that when a foreclosure is conducted by someone other than the owner or holder of the note, the person conducting the foreclosure will be acting as agent or nominee for the owner or holder…Otherwise, the Texas statutory law would make no sense, and would be directly at odds with long-standing, basic principles governing the relationship between real estate borrowers, on the one hand, and their corresponding secured real estate lenders, on the other.” (edited from the below decision):
JANE McCARTHY, Plaintiff, vs. BANK OF AMERICA, NA, BAC HOME LOANS SERVICING, LP, and FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE CORPORATION, Defendants. NO. 4:11-CV-356-A December 22, 2011
 

The OCC Misses the Point on Toxic Waste

The OCC Misses the Point on Toxic Waste

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.
http://www.dtc-systems.net

We all see what we want to see.  But when others control the conversation, it is easy to miss the point.  As a regulator the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency should be taking the lead and controlling the conversation, but in reality, they have been bridled and are being led around by the nose.  Conspiciously absent are numerous issues they as a regulator have the responsibility of dealing with.  This article is timely in response to an article by Neil F. Garfield (http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/the-big-lie-banks-did-nothing-illegal/), which is a response to Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism article (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/more-msm-criticism-of-obama-nothing-illegal-here-move-along-stance-on-foreclosure-fraud.html), which is a response to a Reuters article (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/22/us-foreclosures-idUSTRE7BL0MC20111222).  But I found none of these articles until I was finished writing this post.  Take the following random and critical issues:

  • Are the loans in the pool?  Were the loans ever in the pool?  Does the pool exist?  Did the pool perfect interest in any of the loans?  This issue is very political and the OCC in our opinion will never address this issue or look into this.
  • What loans are in default?  Can a loan be in default?  What comes first, the default or the loss?
  • Are there any compliance issues?

Continue reading “The OCC Misses the Point on Toxic Waste”

FTC Consent Judgment and Order against BAC Home Loans Servicing

FTC Consent Judgment and Order against BAC Home Loans Servicing

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

Am I the only one who missed this Consent Judgment and Order against BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP (hereinafter “BAC”) and Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. (hereinafter “Countrywide”) from the Federal Trade Commission?  They seem to have put quite a damper in what they can and cannot do.  Has BAC complied with the following since this order dated June 15, 2010:

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, within one-hundred fifty (150) days from the date of entry of this Order, Defendants, their officers, employees, agents, representatives, and all other Persons or entities in active concert or participation with them who receive actual notice of this Order by personal service or otherwise, directly or through any corporation, subsidiary, division, or other device, are hereby permanently restrained and enjoined, in connection with the Servicing of any Loan, from failing to disclose Clearly and Prominently the following information: Continue reading “FTC Consent Judgment and Order against BAC Home Loans Servicing”

L. Randall Wray does it again – Requiem For MERS

L. Randall Wray does it again – Requiem For MERS

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

L. Randall Wray, Professor of Economics and Research Director for the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability, University of Missouri-Kansas City posted an article on the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com) that I somehow missed.  The MERS design was woven in fraud.  Professor Wray points out the two main issues with MERS.  The first is that most foreclosures are illegal because those doing the foreclosing do not have legal standing.  Second the practices that create the foreclosure problems also mean that the mortgage backed securities are actually unsecured debt.  Professor Wray says that this means the banks must take them back, so they are toast.  He also states that it all comes back to MERS business model: it destroyed the chain of title.

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OTS Takes Action on Aurora Bank, EverBank, OneWest and Sovereign Bank

OTS Takes Action on Aurora Bank, EverBank, OneWest and Sovereign Bank

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

The Office of Thrift Supervision is in on the action as well.  Here is their press release from April 13, 2011:

Press Releases
April 13, 2011
OTS 11-008 – OTS Takes Action to Correct Foreclosure Deficiencies
FOR RELEASE:
Wednesday, April 13, 2010

CONTACT:
William Ruberry
(202) 906-6677
——————————————————————————–

Washington, D.C. — The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) has taken enforcement actions against four OTS-regulated mortgage loan servicers for critical weaknesses in processing home foreclosures, the OTS announced today.

After an interagency review of foreclosure policies and procedures at 14 nationwide mortgage servicers, the OTS issued enforcement orders against the four servicers supervised by the agency: Aurora Bank, EverBank, OneWest Bank and Sovereign Bank.  The orders require swift and comprehensive action to remedy the widespread and significant deficiencies identified by the review.

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Wells Fargo Does It Again – This Time Investors Take a Hit

Wells Fargo Does It Again – This Time Investors Take a Hit

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

Since Wells Fargo Bank has been around since the Gold Rush days and are such a large lender and securitizer, you would think that they would have state of the art systems handling the servicing of loans.  Especially in light of the huge rush to securitize anything and everything in the last 10 years.  But apparently the meltdown has moved them beyond what their systems are capable of.  This is probably especialy true given that banks are for the most part not lending much anymore (very limited number of new loans), but the number of loans in default, foreclosure, bankruptcy and REO status has skyrocketed. Pushing through so many foreclosures and processing so many advances and distributions is weighing down on their systems and infrastructure.  In their latest March statements to certificateholders (investors who purchased certificates from securitized trusts), Wells Fargo (usually as a Master Servicer or Servicer) is giving investors this disclosure on the first page of the reports:

 NOTE: Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is processing an extraordinary expense charge related to the analysis, creation, and implementation of new and enhanced systems and processes necessitated by significant and unanticipated changes in industry and market conditions.

Continue reading “Wells Fargo Does It Again – This Time Investors Take a Hit”