Kirkbride v Bank of America, NA, Bankr EDNC.2010.$100,000Plus

Kirkbride v Bank of America, NA, Bankr EDNC.2010.$100,000Plus

Read this to find out about why banks make more money foreclosing than keeping you in your home

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-27/regulators-in-u-s-zero-in-on-mortgage-servicers-to-fix-foreclosure-crisis.html

Key area to read from the article

Foreclosure Incentives

Servicers have an incentive to push for foreclosure, which can generate additional fees, and they also can charge borrowers when they are late making payments, giving them a reason to delay loan modifications. Accounting rules allow banks that foreclose to hold off writing down any loss until the home is sold. They must take the loss immediately when allowing a sale by the owner for less than value of the mortgage.

While the flat-rate fee system worked when the market was rising, it failed during the meltdown, Federal Housing Administration Commissioner David Stevens said in an interview. One alternative would be to impose fees that vary with the cost of servicing a loan, he said.

“Servicers’ lack of reserving appropriately and not creating infrastructure to manage nonperforming markets like the kind we’re in is inexcusable,” Stevens said. “You cannot overstate the concern” among regulators that the industry doesn’t have enough capital, he said.

The FHA can impose triple damages on servicers that violate its rules on handling foreclosures.

MERS Accused of Violating the Racketeer and Corrupt Organizations Act

This section is from the 2-9-2011 report by E. Amon for Bloomberg News here: 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-09/sac-citigroup-deutsche-bank-galleon-bosch-in-court-news.html

Lawsuits/Pretrial

Citigroup, Ally Class-Action Foreclosure Suit Dropped

Kentucky homeowners dropped a possible class-action suit in which Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc. units were accused of conspiring with Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. to falsely foreclose on loans.

Heather Boone McKeever, the Lexington, Kentucky, lawyer who sued on behalf of the homeowners, said yesterday by e-mail that she dropped the case Feb. 3 because as a solo practitioner she wouldn’t be able to clear the “necessary hurdles” for maintaining a federal class action and she couldn’t interest a larger law firm. She said she continues to advise the plaintiffs in their individual state-court cases.

“My plan is to try to keep the cases in state court by filing class-action counterclaims against the individual creditors and MERS in each family’s action,” she said.

The lawsuit, filed as a civil-racketeering case on behalf of all Kentucky homeowners facing foreclosure, also named as a defendant Reston, Virginia-based MERS, the company that handles mortgage transfers among member banks.

MERS and banks have been accused in at least two other federal suits of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law originally passed to pursue organized crime. A Florida case was thrown out Jan. 31 by a judge in Miami. Another is in Brooklyn, New York.

The Kentucky homeowners filed their complaint Sept. 28 in Louisville. They claimed that through MERS the banks are foreclosing on homes even when they don’t hold titles to the properties. The suit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that the homeowners can refile it.

The case is Foster v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., 10-cv-611, U.S. District Court, Western District of Kentucky (Louisville).

Radio Segment on Fraudulent MERS from Bloomberg

Again, the goal here is for us/you to demonstrate that our loans were transferred under illegal, unethical terms.  For me it is Countrywide to BofA using MERS.  Follow the money, even when it doesn't show up.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-16/registration-exemptions-mers-problems-bankruptcy-audio.html
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Alameda County Civil Court Rules (in PDF)

Very useful primer for procedures in superior court in Alameda County.

From California Courts Rules website here:  http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/