“Texas does not pass banking laws for Utah,” Assist. AG Jerrold Jensen wrote. “And Utah does not pass banking laws for Texas.”
The Salt Lake Tribune-
The Attorney General’s Office is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit in which a federal judge has ruled that Texas law governs foreclosures carried out by a unit of Bank of America in Utah.
The Feb. 8 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart “is not something the State of Utah can let pass,” Assistant Attorney General Jerrold Jensen wrote in seeking to intervene in the lawsuit.
Federal judges in Utah have split over the question of whether BofA’s foreclosure arm, ReconTrust, may have violated state law in thousands of actions taken in recent years against Utah homeowners.
Stewart ruled that because ReconTrust is headquartered in Texas, where it carries out many of its foreclosure functions, the National Bank Act says the bank’s actions are governed by that state’s laws.
There are some judges that get it and some that maybe still do but side the other way!
KCSG-
Utah senior federal Judges Dee Benson and Bruce Jenkins have ruled Bank of America’s foreclosure arm, ReconTrust Company, N.A. (NYSE: “BAC”) may not be qualified to perform non-judicial foreclosures in Utah. However, this week senior federal Judge David Sam ruled that ReconTrust is operating under the National Bank Act regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), is a trustee under the Texas law where ReconTrust is located rendering Utah Code 57-1-21(3) inapplicable. Ruling
The ruling comes in a case filed by attorney John Christian Barlow, in which ReconTrust is being sued by Utah homeowner Garry Franklin Garrett and accused of conducting an unlawful foreclosure sale because ReconTrust is not a qualified trustee under Utah Law.
ReconTrust Company, the foreclosure arm of Bank of America, accused of illegal foreclosures against Utah homeowners, moved a state court eviction case to federal court Friday asserting the bank’s national charter exemption from state law. (11-00801)
Utah homeowner, Alexis K. De Azevedo II, represented by St. George attorney John Christian Barlow, said in the counter claim and complaint that the Bank of America through ReconTrust Company knowingly conducted a non-judicial foreclosure sale of the property in Washington, Utah, and recorded a Trust Deed in favor of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) adverse to De Azevedo. The complaint asserts that ReconTrust knew the Trustee’s Sale was fraudulent since it’s neither a member of the Utah Bar Association or a title insurance company required by Utah law.
Christian Barlow of St. George, asked why ReconTrust had halted filing foreclosures under its name if it believes the practice is legal. “If ReconTrust can foreclose, why did they stop?” he asked.
Salt Lake Times-
Bank of America stopped filing foreclosure default notices in Salt Lake County earlier this month, but its attorney argued in court Thursday that it still has the legal right to do so.
The seeming contradiction wasn’t explained by the bank, though the halt in filing of notices of default in county property records apparently comes ahead of a pending agreement with the Utah Attorney General’s Office to end the practice state attorneys consider illegal.
The Utah Attorney General’s Office is close to an agreement to halt what it considers illegal foreclosures by Bank of America, which has conducted a majority of foreclosures against homeowners since the subprime-fueled collapse of the housing bubble.
The attorney general’s office had intervened in a homeowner lawsuit to argue that BofA was illegally foreclosing on properties in Utah. But recently it has been negotiating a settlement over foreclosures conducted by ReconTrust, a unit of the giant banking corporation.
A.G. spokesman Paul Murphy said Wednesday an accord is near. Although he declined to provide details, Murphy said in an email that “any settlement would require that all illegal activity [by ReconTrust] stop.”
The Salt Lake City-based law firm Mumford West & Snow, LLC , today announced the filing of a class action lawsuit against the lawyers for Bank of America and its wholly own subsidiary ReconTrust, N.A. for conducting thousands of unauthorized foreclosures in the state. The lawsuit, filed in Utah’s Third Judicial District, is the latest development in an intense, ongoing legal battle in a state where the Utah legislature has recently enacted new civil penalties to assist aggrieved homeowners fighting illegal foreclosures and Utah’s Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, publicly announced that ReconTrust was not in compliance with Utah law.
Lead counsel Marcus R. Mumford explained, “These parties have demonstrated a long standing pattern of illegal activity in taking thousands of homes from Utah homeowners in unauthorized foreclosures. They continue to kick people out of their homes claiming that they are not required to follow Utah law. We intend to put a stop to that.”
The lawsuit, now before Utah Third District Judge Andrew H. Stone, is the first class action suit filed after the recently enacted changes to Utah law. Attorney Tyson B. Snow explains, “We recently met with the Utah Attorney General’s office on this issue and it is our understanding that one of the purposes of the new law is to encourage this very type of lawsuit.” Mumford West & Snow attorneys also intend to seek a statewide restraining order and a preliminary injunction prohibiting the named defendants from conducting any additional foreclosure sales within the state.
Utah’s new law awards $2,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater, and attorney’s fees to homeowners who have been subject to an unauthorized foreclosure conducted by “unauthorized persons.” In the past month, ReconTrust has foreclosed on approximately 200 properties and currently has more than 800 foreclosure sales scheduled in the coming months. The newly filed lawsuit alleges that lawyers for Bank of America and ReconTrust violate Utah law each time they conduct these foreclosure sales. Utah homeowners who have been foreclosed on by ReconTrust or who may currently be facing a wrongful foreclosure can contact Mumford West & Snow through the firms website at http://www.mumfordwest.com
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Mumford West & Snow (www.mumfordwest.com) is a Salt Lake City based firm that specializes in representing entrepreneurs, businessmen, executives and individual clients, in Utah and around the country, in complex civil and criminal litigation. The firm handles both defense work and plaintiff’s litigation for clients ranging from individuals and small enterprises to major corporations.
Mumford West & Snow has been called “one of Salt Lake City’s leading new firms in high-profile litigation.”
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If you’d like more information about this release, or to schedule an interview with an attorney at Mumford West & Snow, please call 801-599-0020 or email contact@mumfordwest.com.
A Bank of America Corp. unit is breaking the law by foreclosing on homeowners in Utah because it doesn’t meet state requirements, the state attorney general’s office said in a federal appeals court case.
ReconTrust Co., a subsidiary of Bank of America, the biggest U.S. lender by assets, isn’t a member of the state bar or a title insurance company and is unqualified to carry out trustee foreclosures, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wrote in court papers filed yesterday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver.
“ReconTrust Co. N.A. is a non-depository national bank initiating approximately 4,000 home foreclosures in Utah each year in violation of Utah law,” the attorney general’s office said.
The court filing was made in a homeowner’s lawsuit against ReconTrust and Bank of America.
“National banks must abide by state law,” said John Christian Barlow, an attorney for the homeowner, Peni Cox. “ReconTrust just wants to foreclose, period,” he said.
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