SAN DIEGO, Feb. 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal judge
certified a class of California
homeowners in two lawsuits against Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), bringing
homeowners closer to holding the banking giant to promises it made
in loan modification agreements that it did not abide.
The judge also denied Wells Fargo's attempt to seal the
evidence, ruling, "Perhaps Wells Fargo is concerned that these
materials make it look bad (because the materials support the
plaintiffs' contention that Wells Fargo administered the HAMP
program in an irresponsible fashion), but a litigant's
embarrassment is not enough to justify concealing material from the
public."
The suits, filed in the United States District Court for the
Northern District of California,
claim that Wells Fargo violated California consumer-rights laws by
misrepresenting the terms of the Home Affordable Modification
Program (HAMP) trial period plans (TPP), designed to help people
modify their mortgage loans. The suit states that Wells Fargo
promised loan modifications to homeowners who successfully
completed a trial mortgage modification under HAMP, but knew it
would never follow through on its obligations under the TPP.
The lawsuits arise from the taxpayer bailout of Wells Fargo
following the worst foreclosure crisis in history. In 2009, in
exchange for Wells Fargo receiving $25
billion in taxpayer money, the U.S. Department of the
Treasury launched HAMP to help millions of distressed homeowners
avoid foreclosure. Under the program, the Treasury Department
provided economic incentives to Wells Fargo and other banks to
encourage them to provide reasonable mortgage modification options
to millions of homeowners.
The class action complaints filed by Blood Hurst &
O'Reardon, LLP on behalf of Phillip
Corvello, and Hagens Berman and Peter Fredman, on behalf of Amira Jackmon, and other Wells Fargo customers,
alleges that although many thousands of homeowners complied with
all the requirements of their agreements with Wells Fargo, Wells
Fargo did not and knew they would not offer permanent mortgage
modifications to these homeowners, while taking their trial
payments and government incentive payments. Wells Fargo accepted months of trial payments from
homeowners, while falsely leading them to believe that they would
be offered permanent mortgage modifications under HAMP.
The judge's order states, "Wells Fargo actively recruited more
and more borrowers into TPPs, even though it did not have the
capacity to process all their applications in a timely fashion, or
deliver on all the loan modification promises it was making."
"Wells Fargo willingly took payments from families and bailout
money from US taxpayers, and then failed to live up to its end of
the bargain by denying these deserving families the reasonable loan
modifications they paid for," said Timothy
Blood, counsel for plaintiff Phillip
Corvello in the class action lawsuit and managing partner of
Blood Hurst & O'Reardon, LLP. Blood added, "Today, we
have taken another large step forward to right this wrong."
"The court's ruling serves as an important victory for the
thousands of families Wells Fargo took advantage of and a reminder
to big banks that even they must uphold their promises," said
Peter Fredman, counsel to
Amira Jackmon.
"We intend to turn a spotlight on Wells Fargo's dubious behavior
and are pleased with the court's order that will allow evidence
against Wells Fargo to come to light and allow our case for this
group of misled California
homeowners to move forward," said Thomas
Loeser, at Hagens Berman, who also represents Ms. Jackmon
and the class of homeowners. "We believe our case shows that Wells
Fargo knowingly misled borrowers, and that the trial program served
two illegitimate purposes — the political purpose of making it
appear that Wells Fargo was helping homeowners by starting HAMP
trials, and the economic purpose of inducing defaulted borrowers
into sending new payments to Wells Fargo — which had no intention
of ever granting the loan modifications."
The class of homeowners was certified under the California
Unfair Competition Law and Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices
Act.
The suit seeks restitution of the payments made as part of the
agreement, along with other relief for homeowners.
The victory for homeowners follows their 2013 victory in the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which was secured by Blood Hurst
& O'Reardon in the same case.
The Wells Fargo class action lawsuits are entitled Corvello
v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (N.D.
Cal.), and Jackmon v. America's Servicing Company and
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (N.D.
Cal.). For more information, visit:
http://www.bholaw.com.
About Blood Hurst & O'Reardon, LLP
Blood Hurst & O'Reardon, LLP specializes in consumer
protection law. It represents consumers, insurance policy
holders, investors and small businesses in class action lawsuits
nationwide.
Contact:
|
Timothy G.
Blood
|
|
Blood Hurst &
O'Reardon, LLP
|
|
701 B Street, Suite
1700
|
|
San Diego, CA
92101
|
|
Phone:
619-338-1100
|
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tblood@bholaw.com
|
About Hagens Berman
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is a consumer-rights
class-action law firm with offices in 10 cities. The firm has been
named to the National Law Journal's Plaintiffs' Hot List eight
times. More about the law firm and its successes can be found
at www.hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news
at @ClassActionLaw.
Contact:
|
Ashley
Klann
|
|
Hagens Berman Sobol
Shapiro LLP
|
|
1918 Eighth Avenue,
Suite 3300
|
|
Seattle, WA
98101
|
|
206-268-9363
|
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ashleyk@hbsslaw.com
|
About the Law Office of Peter Fredman
PC
The Law Office of Peter Fredman
is a boutique law firm in Berkeley,
California that specializes in class actions on behalf of
consumers, borrowers, and employees.
Contact:
|
Peter Fredman,
Esq.
|
|
Law Office of Peter
Fredman
|
|
125 University Ave,
Suite 102
|
|
Berkeley, CA
94710
|
|
Tel:
510-868-2626
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peter@peterfredmanlaw.com
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www.peterfredmanlaw.com
|
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SOURCE Blood Hurst & O'Reardon, LLP