Ohio GMAC Foreclosure Case May Set Anti-Wall Street Precedent

[Purveyor]

By Michael Riley

Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- When James Renfro had to stop making payments on his two-story fixer-upper in Parma, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, he triggered events that were supposed to result in the forced sale of his home.

That Nov. 15 auction has been canceled because of defects in documents submitted by his loan servicer, Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit. Two affidavits about Renfro’s home were signed by Jeffrey Stephan, a GMAC employee who said in sworn depositions in Florida and Maine that he hadn’t read thousands of affidavits he’d signed.

Renfro’s case has created a showdown between GMAC and Ohio’s Attorney General Richard Cordray. Cordray has asked Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy Russo not to let GMAC simply submit new documents to cure defects without consequences. He’s taken the same stand against Wells Fargo & Co., which has said it found defects in 55,000 foreclosures.

“This is just the first,” said Cordray, who has filed an amicus or friend-of-the-court brief in the Renfro case. The judge will consider Cordray’s views today in Cleveland. Cordray will ask Russo to punish GMAC, the fourth-largest U.S. mortgage lender, for its conduct, he said in an interview.

The precedent set by the case might hasten a settlement between home lenders and the attorneys general of the 50 U.S. states, who are investigating allegations of fraud in foreclosure filings. Those being probed include San-Francisco- based Wells Fargo, which has said it will re-file foreclosure affidavits involving statements that “did not strictly adhere to the required procedures.”

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http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=arrczEpPn5g0&pos=11

[Vincardog]

1. “did not strictly adhere to the required procedures.” AKA did not DO the actions DEMAND by the LAW

[Ikonoklast]

2. They got caught breaking the law, and now say, "Oh, we''ll just fix that right up."

If I ever rob a bank, and get caught, maybe I can just say, "Oh, I'll just give the money back, and everything will be fine."

Right?


I can just fix it all, after the fact, even though I committed a crime, right?


Of course, if I don't get caught, I get to keep the money, right?

[KittyWampus]

3. Good, and an arbiter will come in to fix it and THEN the house will go into foreclosure.