UNJUSTICE
 A Sydney Sullivan Story
“Although inspired in part by a true incident, the following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.” Photos throughout the fiction are to assist with your own imagination

Whether it was the wind that day or the position between the camps, Erik and Howard could hear the entire conversation the judges were having. It was like the old well-known oddity of the placement of John Quincy Adam’s desk in the U.S. Capitol where he could hear everything people said — even whispers — from clear across the room. Normally, Erik and Howard wouldn’t hear anything coming from the judges’ camp. But today the word “foreclosure” peaked Erik’s hearing and he wanted to hear more.

They originally had six cabins that his grandfather had built in the early 1950s that were always in need of repair. His mother and sisters cleaned the cabins and he and his father were the repairmen, boat keepers and entertainment. In 2006, a local mortgage broker solicited Erik’s father and suggested that they refinance the property and take out enough money to repair all the original cabins and build four more. Only a small loan existed on the property that his mother and father had taken out when the main house needed a new roof 12 years ago and Erik’s father was extremely conservative about debt.

In 2006, everything was booming in Minnesota – and looked like it would never end. New construction was everywhere. When Erik wasn’t working on the resort, local contractors hired him for framing labor because he had such a fine reputation for quality and speed.  The mortgage broker told Erik’s father that the lake property was worth well over $1.4 million and convinced him that he and Erik could build the new cabins and save construction labor money. All they needed was about $25,000 to $35,000 for each new cabin plus the repair funds for the original cabins.

The mortgage broker was a lodge brother and active member of the local Chamber of Commerce and Erik’s father trusted him. Two years later the mortgage broker was out of business and Erik’s father couldn’t get a new loan anywhere. The economy had crashed and now the payments on the 2006 loan had jumped beyond the family’s expectation. It had been a real struggle to pay the loan.

In 2009, Erik’s father heard a television commercial advertising government sponsored HAMP loan modifications and urged responsible homeowners to call their loan servicer for details. There had been a significant decrease in vacation lodging in 2008 and 2009 and not all of the cabins would stay rented. The regular guests that traveled annually from far away states were cancelling because the hike in gas prices made it extremely expensive to drive “up to the lake”.

Erik’s family didn’t want to risk not paying the mortgage. His dad remembered the earlier farm crisis, but it wasn’t getting any easier to make payments, so they decided to try to modify the loan as the servicer advised them.

For the three years that followed, Erik’s mother and father were frustrated after faxing and mailing the same requests for documentation over and over to the servicer. Even when they wanted to pay and catch up the servicer would refuse the money, adding costs and fees and escalating the payment. A friend and neighbor, George, was going through the same thing and finally lost his home in a non-judicial foreclosure that was merely published in the paper. George had been fighting the foreclosure himself and it appeared to be a nightmare. Erik thought to himself that George’s court pleadings were probably one of those Ole was complaining about. Erik began intently listening to every word the three judges were discussing.

The three had a procedure when a fish was on the hook. Ole grabbed the net and John G. helped Carl steady the rod. “Give him some line and wear him out… told ya that new Snap jig would do the trick,” Ole laughed. After they got the fish up on the ice and hooked for the cooler, John G. restarted the story about his phone call from the U.S. Senate.

“Look, we have a serious problem here in Minnesota. The majority of the pension and retirement funds are invested in these unregulated Wall Street securities…these swap and C-D-O debt things. We’re being told to dump out the homeowner plaintiff lawsuits and ignore their foreclosure related complaints… and any other type of derivative related action – ARS school loans included. Mortgages, mortgage-backed securities they call MBS, appear to be the worst of the bunch. If we rule in favor of the homeowner it could collapse the whole system and there would be no retirement for any of the 300,000 Minnesota government employees, including us,” John G. almost sounded as if he were making a plea deal with the other two judges.

“I know,” replied Ole, “I got the email and I had one helluva time figuring out how the new encryption system works. If it hadn’t been for one of my clerks who used to work for those bank foreclosure mills, I don’t think I ever could have opened it. Then I wished I hadn’t. Not only is this complicated, it is corruption… and it affects me morally.”

It was an enormous walleye, the kind every fisherman dreams about catching and he landed it.

Carl had remained quiet but after the excitement settled down he added in his easy going manner, “There are some good homeowner arguments on the table. One attorney is pushing for the original documents and it appears to me that the originals can no longer be produced. You are right it is complicated and it’s different from how mortgages were funded 20 years ago. I’ve seen the complaints filed by the pension and retirement funds. The Detroit Firemen and Policemen’s complaint is a piece of work. The complaint claims the appraisals were inflated, the underwriting was systemically relaxed and the bonds were overrated. It comes just short of claiming fraud.”

Ole’s eyes widened as he listened to Carl and thoughts of almost losing the family farm years ago brought up his own emotions and suddenly he was overwhelmed with sadness. Ole explained he had a couple similar to his own family appear in his court last week. “All they wanted was one of those HAMP modifications. They had made their payments and their payments got sent back to them and the bank foreclosed on the property. The couple couldn’t understand what was happening. Because of the memo I had to rule in favor of the bank – it was all too emotional.”

John G. grabbed the bottle of Maker’s Mark as he confided that he had to initiate a direct attack on a well-known foreclosure defense attorney. He took a swig and passed the bottle around. It was cold and smooth but it didn’t make the conversation any lighter. “We’ll all have to stand by this – you understand, right?”

“Who is it?” Carl asked.

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UNJUSTICE is a new series on DeadlyClear that will upload as chapters are completed. Please subscribe so you don’t miss as the story progresses. Inspiration and research in part with Vermont Trotter and our foreclosure defense network. Copyright DC 2016-2024.