A class action lawsuit has been filed against Chase Home Finance LLC and JPMorgan Chase, N.A. in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, alleging that defendants reneged on a promise to modify troubled mortgages. The class action is brought on behalf of the following class of persons:
All mortgagors in the the State of California whose home mortgage loans are or were serviced by Chase Home Finance LLC or JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and who (a) have attempted to obtain permanent loan modifications from Chase Home Finance LLC or JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. through the Home Affordable Modification Program (“HAMP”) or similiar loan modification programs; and (b) have made payments pursuant to a HAMP Trial Period Plan (“TPP”) or any similiar temporary modification agreement offered by Defendants.
For more information on the Chase Home Finance & JPMorgan Chase mortgage loan modification class action lawsuit, read the Chase Home Finance & JPMorgan Chase class action lawsuit complaint.
For information about this class action, contact paralegal Nick Wallace or attorneys Gretchen Obrist or Lynn Sarko at 800.776.6044 or via email at info@kellerrohrback.com.
Without giving a reason, Chase has asked various courts to drop more than 1,000 debt-collection lawsuits against individuals (Lender Drops Pursuit of Debt, Wall Street Journal, 6/24/11).
The suits were dropped without prejudice, meaning Chase can refile them later.
There is some indication that the lawsuits were dropped because of paperwork irregularities, which courts are becoming less tolerant to:
Mitch Granat, a lawyer who handles debt-collection cases for J.P. Morgan in Palm Beach County, Fla., on a contract basis, said he was told by other lawyers for the bank that the suits in Florida were dropped because of “irregularities” in paperwork used to verify the validity of the credit-card debt being pursued. Some judges have complained that J.P. Morgan and other credit-card issuers that go to court to collect what they are owed file lawsuits marred by sloppy or even fraudulent documentation of debts.
The problem is related to the robo-signing problem that has been widespread in foreclosure paperwork. Chase has been accused by several former employees of employing robo-signing tactics on consumer debt affidavits. One of the former employees claims that Chase has incorrect information on balances owed on thousands of credit card accounts.
There is more indication that Chase may either be abandoning these type of lawsuits as part of its debt collection strategy, or may be switching gears from running its own in-house debt-collection legal team:
Many lenders farm out debt-collection lawsuits to outside law firms. In contrast, J.P. Morgan predominantly uses a team of in-house lawyers scattered across the U.S. Last month, some of those lawyers say they were told by company officials that all the collection offices where they work will be shut down by the start of 2012. J.P.
This is good news for credit card customers who were bullied into closing their accounts or accepting rate increases by Chases raising of minimum payments from 2% to 5%. For more information on this lawsuit (and to join) go here.
Certification Granted in Chase Lawsuit
In May 2011, after extensive briefing and oral argument, the Court granted plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. This is an important ruling because it means that the case can proceed to trial as a class action, collectively representing all who fall within the class definition below:
All persons or entities in the United States who entered into a loan agreement with Chase, whereby Chase promised a fixed APR until the loan balance was paid in full, and (i) whose minimum monthly payment was increased by Chase to 5% of the outstanding balance, or (ii) who were notified of a minimum monthly payment increase by Chase and subsequently closed their account or agreed to an alternative change in terms offered by Chase.
Chase is accused, in this latest lawsuit of knowingly pushing toxic loans on unsuspecting customers. While Chase doesn’t appear to have been involved at the time these loans were issued, they are the successor to the litigation due to their acquiring of Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns, who were apparently responsible. However, Chase CEO is accused of knowing about the fruad since 2008 but working to keep the information from the public.
Chase has set aside a $9 billion reserve for the litigation. Ouch!
We received this note from a reader:
Hagens Berman 206-623-7292 may be involved in a class action lawsuit on behalf of Chase customers who have been attempting to modify their mortgage loans.
From their website, I was able to find this case that involves several large banks (presumably including Chase) not providing loan modifications to eligible customers.
The National Credit Union Administration is threatening to sue several large banks, including JPMorgan Chase, seeking the refund on $50 billion in mortgage-backed securities sold to wholesale credit unions, who buy the securities on behalf of retail credit unions. The securities are now worth $25 billion, half of what their original value.
In one of the broadest accusations that Wall Street helped cripple financial institutions during the crisis, the National Credit Union Administration, or NCUA, has threatened to sue several investment banks unless they refund over $50 billion of mortgage-backed securities sold to the five institutions, called wholesale credit unions.
The NCUA is accusing Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit, Citigroup Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. of misrepresenting the risks of the bonds to wholesale credit unions, which loaded up on the bonds in their role of investing on behalf of retail credit unions, according to people familiar with the situation.
This story clearly shows that Chase has a history defrauding its customers to benefit itself.
NEW YORK, March 7 (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) has settled a lawsuit accusing it of defrauding bond investors out of at least $1.2 billion through bad record keeping, court records show.
The settlement of the five-year-old case comes as banks’ ability to handle paperwork faces intense scrutiny, especially over their mortgage operations.
Investors had accused JPMorgan of deleting records on $46.8 billion of bonds from roughly 6,500 bond issues that had not been cashed in, and then covering up its mistakes.
They said the second-largest U.S. bank did this so it could retain for itself unclaimed bond proceeds that belonged to thousands of investors.
JPMorgan “stole the trust funds and concealed the theft long enough to try to run out the statute of limitations,” an amended complaint filed in 2009 said.
If that wasn’t clear enough, Chase is accused of deleting records so that it would be harder for people to claim bond proceeds so Chase could keep any of the proceeds that went unclaimed.
Perhaps the $1.8 billion JPMorgan Chase paid for Washington Mutual’s assets wasn’t a bargain after all. They’ve tried to deny responsibility for any of the toxic assets that were sold to others by WaMu but the FDIC pushed back hard on that one.
Today Allstate filed a $787 million lawsuit against Chase for mortgage-backed securities they bought from WaMu.
Allstate sues JPMorgan over mortgage debt losses
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Allstate Corp (ALL.N) sued JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) on Wednesday to recover losses after the bank allegedly misrepresented the risks on more than $757 million of mortgage securities the insurer bought.
The lawsuit against the second-largest U.S. bank was filed just seven weeks after Allstate filed a similar lawsuit against Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), the largest bank, over losses on more than $700 million of mortgage securities.
Jennifer Zuccarelli, a JPMorgan spokeswoman, declined to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
Allstate, the largest publicly-traded U.S. home and auto insurer, is one of many to sue lenders for allegedly misleading them about mortgage securities.
The Northbrook, Illinois-based company said it suffered “significant losses” after JPMorgan and its affiliates misled it into believing it was buying “highly-rated, safe securities” backed by high-quality loans.
“In fact,” Allstate said, “defendants knew the pool was a toxic mix of loans given to borrowers that could not afford the properties, and thus were highly likely to default.”
Read More …
Ouch!
Lawsuits, Loan modification | admin July 1, 2011 | 
Comments (6) 
