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EDITOR’S COMMENT: While finding that the affidavits were false and agreeing the conduct was disturbing and reprehensible the Court held that GMAC should not be held in contempt. What? The dissenting opinion is correct. Neither the trial Judge nor the Supreme Court should have even considered the question without a hearing in which evidence was submitted.
Nevertheless the Court’s opinion is further ratification of what we have been saying on these pages. The fraudulent foreclosures (26,000 of them in Essex County, Mass alone) are a cancer growing on our society. The corruption of title registries is already taking its toll, but we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.
The interesting thing about this case is off the record. GMAC dropped the foreclosure and the homeowner is still in her home. It goes without saying that her title is corrupted by the fraudulent foreclosure. Perhaps she has a cause of action for slander of title, quiet title and other claims? The point is that by paying attention to details it was obvious that the papers being used to foreclose were false and GMAC couldn’t fix it because they were simply not true.
Third party reports and analyses will help you get your point across. That is why I created the COMBO TITLE and SECURITIZATION REPORT. (see above for link)
Maine high court declines to hold GMAC in contempt over ‘robo-signing’ of foreclosure records
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PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s highest court has declined to find GMAC Mortgage in contempt for signing off on home foreclosures without first verifying documents — a practice referred to as “robo-signing.”
In a 5-1 decision, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld a decision by a lower court last year. A district judge stopped short in that ruling of finding GMAC in contempt, though he did find that the company submitted a foreclosure affidavit on behalf of Fannie Mae in bad faith.
The case involved a Maine woman who fell behind on mortgage payments after losing her job.
During the lawsuit, her attorneys deposed a GMAC employee in Florida who testified that he signed 8,000 documents a month without personally verifying the mortgage information.
The deposition helped to spur investigations by all 50 states into allegations that mortgage companies mishandled documents and broke laws in thousands of foreclosures.
Writing for the majority, Justice Ellen Gorman didn’t mince words in her criticism, but she noted that there’s no precedent for a contempt finding under the circumstances.
“The affidavit in this case is a disturbing example of a reprehensible practice. That such fraudulent evidentiary filings are being submitted to courts is both violative of the rules of court and ethically indefensible,” she wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. The conduct, she added, “displays a serious and alarming lack of respect for the nation’s judiciaries.”
One of the justices, Jon Levy, issued a dissenting opinion, writing that the district judge should have conducted a full hearing into the contempt issue before rendering his decision.
Thomas Cox, who represented the woman who nearly lost her home, said it was satisfying to shed light on GMAC’s practices but disappointing that the court didn’t require a fuller inquiry and whether those practices were egregious enough to warrant a contempt finding.
“The issue has been exposed and it’s out in the open but to have the supreme court not act more strongly is a disappointment,” Cox said Wednesday.
As for the plaintiff, GMAC ultimately dropped its foreclosure action against Nicolle Bradbury, who remains in her Denmark, Maine, home, Cox said.
GMAC’s lawyer, John J. Aromando, had no immediate comment Wednesday. Gina Proia, spokeswoman for GMAC’s parent company, Ally Financial in New York, said the company is pleased with the court ruling but had no further comment. The company remains the target of a separate class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of Maine homeowners.
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