Banks drop foreclosures in

Southwest Florida
Hundreds of lawsuits dismissed
By DICK HOGAN • dhogan@news-press.com • January 19,
2011

1:10 A.M. — Banks in recent weeks have been dropping

hundreds of their Southwest Florida foreclosure lawsuits instead
of facing defendants at trial, according to local attorneys and
court records.

The banks are just taking a breather before refiling with stronger
evidence - or giving up for good on hopelessly flawed cases.

Some foreclosures at large law firms were never actually read by

the attorneys who filed them here and elsewhere, and some of the
mortgages that ended up in mortgage-backed securities sold to
investors were never legally transferred by the banks, defense
attorneys have alleged.

"We think they're going to come back and refile," Lee County
Clerk of Court Charlie Green said.

That's an expensive proposition, he said, noting foreclosure suits

carry a hefty filing fee: about $1,900 for a $250,000 house, for
example.

What happens is lawyers for the banks are asking judges to

dismiss their cases, which is "very much out of the ordinary,"
Green said. "You don't see cases dismissed without prejudice that
often."

Foreclosures were rare in Southwest Florida until the housing

market crashed at the end of 2005, bringing on waves of mortgage
defaults by investors and homeowners.

Green said he hasn't calculated exactly how many foreclosures are

being dismissed.

But eight voluntary dismissals were filed Tuesday alone by seven

different banks including Bank of America, one of the largest
filers of foreclosures in this area. Bank of America did not reply
to a request for comment Tuesday.

At one court hearing alone, attorney Kevin Jursinski said, one of

his associates watched as "50 in a row" were withdrawn.

"Can they re-litigate?" Fort Myers-based attorney Carmen

Dellutri asked. "I don't think so."

Most of the mortgages in dispute were sold to Wall Street and

sold in bundles to investors as mortgage-backed securities, he
said. But so many mistakes were made in the process it's unlikely
the banks can win those cases.

Some mortgages still held by the bank that made the loan might
be defensible but those are in the minority, Dellutri said.

He said he's seeing cases withdrawn in large numbers in Lee,

Collier and Charlotte counties, and he heard from an attorney in
Jacksonville the situation is the same there.

April Charney, a Jacksonville-area legal aid attorney who's an

expert on foreclosure issues, said for the most part banks have no
way to prosecute their cases because the mortgages in mortgage-
backed securities were never actually legally transferred to the
trusts.

She said much of the recent wave of voluntary dismissals may be

a result of a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling Jan. 7
upholding a judge's decision two foreclosures were invalid
because the banks didn't prove they owned the mortgages, which
he said were improperly transferred into two mortgage-backed
trusts.

Now, she said, many mortgages simply aren't fixable. "You can't
go back and securitize. You run a red light, you can't go back and
unrun it."