MBS litigation 2.0: BofA sues trustee Wells Fargo over put-back demands
On Tuesday, Bank of America broke what I believe is new ground in mortgage-backed securities litigation. The bank brought a declaratory judgment suit against Wells Fargo, the trustee in a commercial MBS offering by BofA predecessor LaSalle Bank, requesting a judicial ruling that BofA is not required to comply with the trustee’s put-back demand. The complaint, filed in federal district court in Chicago by Aronberg Goldgehn and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, contends that Wells Fargo didn’t comply with the terms of the governing contract, and, moreover, that some of the underlying loans the trustee wants BofA to buy back are performing just fine.
The MBS trust is backed by commercial rather than residential mortgages, so it’s not necessarily a harbinger of declaratory judgment claims in response to the rash of RMBS trustee suits we’ve seen lately. But Wells Fargo’s put-back demand, as BofA describes it in the complaint, was based on the same kind of alleged underwriting deficiencies cited by investors in RMBS put-backs. Wells Fargo has been notably quick and aggressive about asserting put-backs on mortgages underlying LaSalle commercial MBS offerings, even going to trial against BofA in federal court in Oklahoma last year in a 2008 case claiming that LaSalle’s underwriting process was systemically tainted. Perhaps when BofA has had as much experience with RMBS trustees as it has had with Wells Fargo on commercial MBS, we’ll see similar declaratory judgment actions. (I left a phone message for Gregory Markel of Cadwalader but didn’t hear back.)
More here…
Copy of the complaint below…
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4closureFraud.org
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Doc No: 2012-0381055 Record Date: 6/29/2012
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Document Type: POWER ATTORNEY
Grantor(s:(
DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY
MORGAN STANLEY ABS CAPITAL I INC TRUST 2006 NC3
Grantee(s:(
OCWEN
OCWEN LOAN SERVICING LLC
BofA v. Wells Fargo AKA! exellent!:) case against fraudster # 1a(countrywide-recontrust(BAC)Impac) v . fraudster # 2b(Argent-ocwenaltisource-western progressive-LITIGATION -houser&allison-laywyer Manford Benjamin susman (OLS & OCN)…and the winner is?…
Doc No: 2011-0209415 Record Date: 4/21/2011
Reel: 0 Image: 0 Pages: 7
Document Type: NOTICE
Grantor(s:(
MASTER ASSET BACKED SECURS TRUST
ALTISOURCE HOMES
*** Grantee(s:(
*** CITY S D ***
2012-0381055 POWER ATTORNEY OCWEN
2004-0554190 POWER ATTORNEY OCWEN
2011-0566082 POWER ATTORNEY OCWEN FED BK
2008-0451635 SUBSTN TRUSTEE OCWEN FED BK
2008-0039726 ASGT TRUST DEED OCWEN FED BK
2007-0549841 SUBSTN TRUSTEE OCWEN FED BK
2007-0441916 POWER ATTORNEY OCWEN FED BK
2007-0429479 SUBSTN TRUSTEE OCWEN FED BK
2007-0021976 REQUEST NOTICE OCWEN FED BK
2006-0552061 SUBSTN TRUSTEE OCWEN FED BK
2006-0445956 POWER ATTORNEY OCWEN FED BK
2006-0435877 SUBSTN TRUSTEE OCWEN FED BK
2006-0210239 POWER ATTORNEY OCWEN FED BK
2005-1030753 SUBSTN TRUSTEE OCWEN FED BK
2005-0885644 SUBSTN TRUSTEE OCWEN FED BK