Reported late Tuesday night from Bloomberg...
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(Bloomberg) - Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit agreed to drop about 250 foreclosure cases in Maryland that were tied to defective affidavits, the company said Tuesday. “We’re dismissing the cases but they will be re-filed,” Proia said. “The intention is to re-file the cases to go through the new foreclosure procedures in Maryland.”
GMAC’s decision comes after a Maryland nonprofit, Civil Justice Inc., agreed to drop a class-action lawsuit on behalf of homeowners whose foreclosure documents were signed by GMAC employee Jeffrey Stephan, Anthony DePastina, an attorney for Civil Justice, said in a phone interview.
Stephan said in sworn depositions last year and in 2009 that he signed as many as 10,000 affidavits a month without checking their accuracy in a practice that has come to be known as “robo-signing.”
“Hopefully GMAC’s actions will set a precedent with other lenders where robo-signing has occurred,” DePastina said. “I think there will be a ripple effect throughout the country.”
DePastina said as many as 1,000 foreclosures may be tied to defective affidavits. Proia said that number is “factually inaccurate.”
Continue reading at Bloomberg...
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More on this story...
GMAC foreclosure cases in Maryland dismissed due to defective affidavits
A recent defense class action lawsuit in Maryland resulted in the dismissal of hundreds, if not thousands, foreclosure cases initiated by GMAC Mortgage. GMAC's ability to re-file the foreclosure documents remains intact.
Baltimore non-profit Civil Justice, Inc. and the University of Maryland School of Law Consumer Protection Clinic brought what they're calling the first ever defense class action suit against the mortgage company in October, alleging wrongful foreclosure due to faulty foreclosure affidavits.
"We filed a defense class action lawsuit, meaning instead of filing affirmatively, we used the case as a defense for all those individuals being sued or foreclosed upon by GMAC," defense attorney Tony DePastina told HousingWire.
DePastina, alongside partner Philip Robinson and head of the university Consumer Protection Clinic Peter Holland, defended the case on behalf of Kevin Matthews and "a class of similarly situated persons." GMAC filed a foreclosure case against Matthews in March 2010.
Maryland is a quasi-judicial state with regard to foreclosures, meaning that a foreclosure will only go through the court if a case is filed. Not all foreclosures have a case filed.
http://www.housingwire.com/2011/01/18/gmac-foreclosure-cases-in-maryland-dismissed-due-to-defective-affidavits
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David Dayen at FDL got a little excited when he first read the ruling Sunday...as you see in his headline...
10,000 GMAC Foreclosures Stopped in Maryland
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/01/16/10000-gmac-foreclosures-stopped-in-maryland/
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Start the slideshow...
Takes 2 Minutes - Don't Skip This One
You will see several examples of ACTUAL fraudulent documents that were submitted by large, well known banks in court proceedings.
We're talking over the top, ridiculous fraud here - Fake people, fake signers, fake documents, false notaries, and EVEN fake banks...
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Further reading...