The Banks Still Want a Waiver
Could an eventual settlement of the foreclosure mess give banks a shield against future lawsuits?
By Thom Weidlich
Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. lost a foreclosure case in Massachusetts’s highest court that will guide lower courts in that state and may influence others in the clash between bank practices and state real-estate law. The ruling drove down bank stocks.
The state Supreme Judicial Court today upheld a judge’s decision saying two foreclosures were invalid because the banks didn’t prove they owned the mortgages, which he said were transferred into two mortgage-backed trusts without the recipients’ being named.