Three Miami women who allege their homes were illegally foreclosed on by a major bank allege they will never get justice in a Florida court. With the Sunshine State exhausting available remedies, they head to the Aloha State to participate in a class action lawsuit in federal court in Hawaii.
Ana Lazara Rodriguez, Julie Nicholas and Maria Williams James join five plaintiffs in recent extortion lawsuit filed from Hawaii against Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) rice field.
According to a complaint filed and attached late last month, the plaintiffs, who are people of color, allege Bank of America and BNY Mellon for discriminatory violations of the Fair Housing Act and the Extortion Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act. claimed to have been involved in Until the end of this article.
Plaintiffs allege that “organized foreclosure fraud has been committed.” [Bank of America] When [BNY Mellon] According to the complaint, it has utilized a variety of individual schemes to unjustly expropriate homes from Countrywide foreclosers in fair court in open defying the rule of law that has existed for hundreds of years. , when giant mortgage lenders were collapsing amid the subprime mortgage crisis.)
Rodriguez, 84 and a former Cuban political prisoner, is in Miami’s Little Gables neighborhood after being sold from a foreclosure by BNY Mellon last year despite an attempt by Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava. Made local headlines when she was evicted from her longtime home.
Nicholas, a home health nurse, and Williams-James, a retired school teacher, are still living in their home as they battle eviction after a foreclosure.
“It affects my life every day. I am happy to stay home every day and pay my mortgage, but my bank refuses to accept them,” said a single mother of three. Nicholas, who is New Times. “I don’t know what will happen. It caused me a lot of anxiety.”
According to the complaint, Nicolas was without pay for three months after his mortgage payment was delayed when his employer was audited. When her salary was restored and her pay raise was given, she applied for a loan modification, which she claims was rejected by Bank of America as her loan servicer.
Plaintiff, Miami-based attorney Bruce Jacobs, claims in numerous lawsuits that Bank of America and BNY Mellon used fraudulent materials to seize homes owned by vulnerable people of color. is doing.
The federal complaint alleges that the bank used “counterfeit rubber-stamped mortgage endorsements” and “false mortgage allotments” in each of the eight plaintiffs’ foreclosures.
reacher new times In an email this week, BNY Mellon declined to comment on the story.
Bank of America spokesperson William Holdin, who was asked to address the allegations in the lawsuit, said. new times The matter has already been dealt with in Florida courts.
“Each of these three issues has been exhaustively contested in court, and the current lawsuit is an attempt to rehash previously dismissed cases and theories,” Holdin said in an email. decision new times for inclusion in their story. ”
Foreclosures involving three Miami plaintiffs were adjudicated in the Florida Circuit Court, and judges ruled in favor of the banks in each case. Jacobs tried to appeal the decision, but a judge in the Florida Third District Court of Appeals refused to hear his fraud allegations.
“The court made it clear that they were unwilling to consider fraud and did not wish to be fair and impartial,” Jacobs argues..
Jacobs is also facing heat from the Florida Bar Association in the form of two pending complaints stemming from comments he made unhappy with the court’s response to widespread foreclosure fraud claims. increase. He is accused of “[making] “Disparaging and reckless judicial comments” violate Bar Rule 4-8.2(a): Objection to the Qualifications and Honesty of Judges or Other Officials.
Despite the looming discipline, Jacobs was approached by the Hawaii Fair Lending Coalition as special counsel in cases against Bank of America and BNY Mellon.
Bank of America is facing another major lawsuit in Hawaii for breaking a promise to lend a $150 million mortgage to a Native Hawaiian. According to a report published on the non-profit news site Honolulu Civil Beat, the banks have met their obligations through other means, including loans to developers.