The Soap Box:

California appeals court  slaps down servicer’s attempt to require payment of the entire mortgage loan a condition of homeowner protection.

Nice try, Ocwen.

But no, says an intermediate California appeals court.

Such an interpretation would gut theCalifornia Homeowner’s Bill of Rights.

Facing foreclosure

The facts in Valbuena v. Ocwen  are common:  Ocwen became the servicer of the Valbuena’s mortgage loan when the loan was in default.

Ocwen filed a notice of foreclosure sale and sent the homeowners a letter offering to consider a loan modification.  The homeowners submitted an application and supplemented it when Ocwen told them it was missing necessary documents.

Two days later, Ocwen foreclosed.

Dual tracking prohibited

California’s homeowners bill of rights forbids a foreclosure sale while the mortgage servicer is considering an application to modify the loan in default.

Nonetheless, Ocwen solicited a loan modification application and barreled right along to…

Case 1:13-cv-00465-MMS Document 205 Filed 07/14/15 Page 1 of 82

Here is the court document order from Judge Sweeney for those that are interested. Click here to view the judge’s order granting general leave. And here is the  court document of plantiff’s motion to unseal Treasury and FHFA documents. Click here.

And more:

2015-07-14 Plaintiffs Redacted Motion to Unseal PwC Documents

2015-07-14 Plaintiffs Redacted Motion to Unseal Fannie Mae Documents

2015-07-14 Plaintiffs Redacted Motion to Unseal Deloitte Documents

2015-07-14 Plaintiffs redacted motion to unseal Graham Thornton documents documents

7:15:15 Motion to unseal Freddie Mac documents pdf

And:

On 7/14/15 in a motion put forth by the government arguing for more time to respond to the motion to unseal documents and depositions, this was confirmed:

By Clara Herzberg, Truthout | Op-Ed

Well, well, well. Eric Holder is returning to his cushy job at Covington & Burling where he reportedly pulled in $2.5 million the last year he was there. Holder didn’t think it was strange he was returning to one of Wall Street’s most highly regarded defense firms after all the bankers he let breezily carry on with fraud, bribery, money laundering, tax evasion and plenty of other very prosecutable offenses during his tenure as US attorney general.

Holder explained simply: “The firm’s emphasis on pro bono work and being engaged in the civic life of this country is consistent with my worldview that lawyers need to be socially active.” Yeah, and what about the $2.5 million, Mr. Holder? That’s got nothing to do with it surely.

Holder had just spent six years in Washington handing out slaps on the wrist to financial…

We learn from the New York Timesthat:

From Elizabeth Warren blog:

The new consumer agency was about leveling the playing field, about making sure that families didn’t get cheated in the fine print on mortgages and credit cards and checking accounts and all other kinds of financial dealings.

The financial industry had fought us every inch of the way, spending more than a million dollars a day for over a year. Many times, they declared the agency dead. We didn’t have that kind of money to spend on lobbyists and PR firms – heck, we had hardly any money in comparison – but we didn’t give up. We built an organization from the ground up, and we pulled in allies and grassroots activists from all over the country. It was David-versus-Goliath all the way, and in the fight for the consumer agency, David pulled it off.

And the fight was worth it. The agency went operational four…

Very interesting…

Ron Irwin completes book “Hell’s Bank” EXPOSING Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf for $38 BILLION in fines and penalties a pattern of discriminatory practices and overt racism.  Book release date August 17^th2015.

BURBANK, CA  In his ninth book author Ron Irwin has investigated and now reports on a pattern of gross misconduct that has led to Wells Fargo & Company to paying over $38 BILLION in civil fines and penalties for a variety of severe violations of applicable rules and laws including one landmark case involving blatant racial discrimination against more than 30,000 African American and Hispanic customers.

“I find it abhorrent that such utterly disgraceful conduct of this magnitude can happen while one man, John G. Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo & Company receives compensation in excess of $160 MILLION.  How can it be that Stumpf receives such lush pay as his company literally destroys the…

Judge Margaret Sweeney in the Federal Claims Court in Washington yesterday granted a motion that will force theU.S. Treasury to release all discovery document materials in its possession that pertain to the decision to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship.

The request, made by Fairholme Funds, is a big win for them in the battle to review federally sealed documents in its case against the United States government. Fairholme is one of several former investors in the government-sponsored enterprises who say their ownership stake was illegally taken from them by the federal government during conservatorship. They are fighting, in court, to get that stake returned.

Read on.

In re Walker, 526 B.R. 187 (E.D. La. 2015) –

The bankruptcy court (1) denied a mortgage lender’s request to file a late amendment to a proof of claim that had been filed on its behalf by the debtor and (2) confirmed the debtor’s proposed plan over the mortgagee’s objection that the plan payments were not sufficient to cure the actual arrearage. The lender appealed to the district court.