THE TWENTIETH CIRCUIT’S RESPONSE
TO THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF PROHIBITION

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Hint: This is NOT about borrowers, make sure you read the email in the link below!

“How do you think we can help out those poor defendants today? We may not be able to cure their legal issues, but we’d sure like to help give them some strong legal arguments in their case!”

Naples Daily News–

The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland issued the order Tuesday morning, nearly two weeks after the ACLU filed a petition seeking an intervention in the case of Cape Coral homeowner Georgi Merrigan, who is facing foreclosure.

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.

GEORGE E. MERRIGAN

v.

BANK OF NEW YORK MELLOW,
FKA BANK OF NEW YORK

from footnote:

1 Petitioner’s name is Georgi E. Merrigan, but the Circuit Court case caption erroneously refers to her as “George E. Merrigan.”

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Lee County Plaintiff Will Be Available For Comment and Interview

April 6, 2011

CONTACT:

ACLU Media Office, (212) 549-2582, media@aclu.org
ACLU of Florida Media Office, (786) 363-2737, media@aclufl.org

Cape Coral – The ACLU Foundation on Thursday will file a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland, Florida, requesting the Court review and rule on the process and procedures used in the “Foreclosure Courts” in the 20th Judicial Circuit of Florida (Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee Counties).

The Writ alleges serious violations of due process and systemic deficiencies in the “Foreclosure Courts” which result in a loss of protections for homeowners. It requests the Court move the plaintiff’s pending foreclosure action from the “Foreclosure Courts” to regular circuit court proceedings.

The plaintiff in the case is a Cape Coral resident who will be available tomorrow in front of her home at:

Thursday, April 7, 2011
1:30pm
2723 SW 17 PL
Cape Coral, FL 33914

The plaintiff will be joined by ACLU of Florida Associate Legal Director Maria Kayanan who will be
able to answer questions about the legal challenge.

# # #

About the ACLU of Florida
The ACLU of Florida is freedom’s watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to
defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For
additional information, visit our web site at: www.aclufl.org.

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By STEVEN BEARDSLEY

Posted March 19, 2011 at 6:30 p.m.

FORT MYERS — The modern foreclosure case resembles a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing: The picture may come through when put together, but it’s incomplete.

With most local foreclosures cases, the picture is clear enough — the homeowner fell behind on the mortgage, stopped paying and now owes someone his or her home.

Yet as state and federal investigators increasingly focus on those missing pieces — misplaced or fraudulent paperwork — critics say the Lee Circuit Court system is shirking its responsibility to do the same, instead pushing cases forward to reduce a massive case backlog.

The Big Picture

By Barry Ritholtz – December 11th, 2010, 8:08AM

Sometimes, the best defense is a good offense.

That seems to be the approach that notorious robo-signing firm Nationwide Title Clearing has taken in responding to some of its critics.

If you are unfamiliar with their name, you might recall earlier this Fall when depositions of several Nationwide robo-signers employees went viral on YouTube (We mentioned these here and here).

This, amongst other perceived sleights has upset Nationwide Title, who has sued a St. Petersburg foreclosure defense lawyer, Matthew Weidner, for alleged libel and slander.

This is likely to be a terrible, terrible idea.

For those of you who are not attorneys, I need to point out a few things out about Libel and Slander laws in the United States. These are Constitutional issues, as the First Amendment protects speech, opinion, arguments, viewpoints, etc. In these cases, (capital “T”) Truth is an absolute defense. So if any defendant can demonstrate that the damaging statements were indeed, accurate, they win.

This case turns on the bizarre claim that the term robo-signer so libels the plaintiffs that they are entitled to damages. Given that Truth is a defense, the defendant will prevail if they can demonstrate Nationwide’s approach was robotic. Not literally machines doing the work, but any showing of assembly line manufacturing, for profit, of a streamlined document production that failed to review the documents, evaluate them, analyze the contents should qualify.

Here’s where things get very very interesting: In civil litigation, the discovery process provides lots of opportunities for a defendant to gather information related to the accusations to prove they are true. This is a very broad standard, and it means nearly anything relevant is fair game. Depositions of senior executives, the firm’s accounting and records, balance sheets, low level employees are all legitimate aspects of pre-trial discovery.

Why any private firm would subject themselves to this degree of scrutiny is quite baffling to me.

Links will return pending ACLU’s victory…

NATIONWIDE TITLE CLEARING VIDEO DEPOSITIONS

VIDEO DEPOSITION OF NATIONWIDE TITLE CLEARING BRYAN BLY

SFF EXCLUSIVE: VIDEO DEPOSITION OF NATIONWIDE TITLE CRYSTAL MOORE

VIDEO DEPOSITION OF NATIONWIDE TITLE CLEARING DHURATA DOKO

And FULL DEPOSITION TRANSCRIPT OF NATIONWIDE TITLE CLEARING ERICA LANCE BRYAN BLY

Continue below to ACLU’s reply below…

According to a Certification filed by NTC’s counsel, on November 17, 2010, the trial court contacted via e-mail and requested that a one-hour hearing be set on Friday, November 19^th, to hear the pending motions. App. Tab 10. NTC’s counsel learned that Mr. Forrest was traveling outside of the country and would not return until the following Monday, November 22^nd. Id. As NTC’s counsel explained: …

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