This is an Apology to Our Neighbors, Our Neighborhood and Our City
By suttershome
This is a letter I felt compelled to write to the letter of the editor of our local newspaper. The payouts that are being paid to affected homeowners is a straight up joke! Some are getting as little as $300. Amazing that the banks were able to police themselves throughout this whole process. This letter will demonstrate, another way, that the banks are getting away with crimes that would have ended us, the average American, in prison.
Letter to the Editor:
This is an apology to our neighbors, our neighborhood and our city. We apologize for how our home has deteriorated and how, it may seem that we have been neglectful of our home. We have lived in our home and in this beautiful city, for almost nineteen years; and for many years we were very involved in trying to better our community and in some ways are still involved today, although, as you will see, we have been busy in other avenues of bettering, hopefully, our country when this is all said and done.
In 2004, after a very destructive year in our lives (the death of our son-in-law and grandson, the loss of a job and a son serving his country in Iraq); we were forced to refinance our home and unfortunately for us, had dealt with a loan company that, within six months after our “closing”, would receive a Cease and Desist letter from the State of Michigan for illegal practices. We would learn this fact after the bank tried to illegally foreclose on our home in 2006. We discovered that the involved lender had blatantly forged my husband and my signatures to the mortgage document, notarized that document and recorded it as legal tender at the Lapeer County Register of Deeds.
We spent the next six years, fighting the bank, over a crime that, had we committed, would have sent us straight to jail, paying restitution and suffering the consequences that go along with that type of decision. We not only had to fight the bank; we had to fight the very court (bankruptcy) that we reported this crime to. The trustee hired an attorney that jumped on the bandwagon to win an avoidance of the forged mortgage, only for that same attorney to turn around, after we won (in July 2007), and attempt to sell the avoided mortgage back to the defendants for $30,000, without notifying us or our attorney; an action which would have allowed the guilty defendants to retain their interest in our property and continue with their illegal foreclosure. We were forced to pay the trustee’s attorney over $12,000 for his “services”.
This erroneous decision by the bankruptcy court, before determining whether the bank had a legal right to an equitable mortgage, caused us to appeal the resale of our voided mortgage to the US District Court. This courts determination was that the bankruptcy court had not determined whether the bank had a legal right to have an equitable mortgage, based on the forgery, and sent it back to the lower court for a determination. The bankruptcy court, upon the receipt of this remand, immediately determined that the defendants were eligible for the equitable mortgage and, again, we were forced to appeal to the US District Court. The final determination deemed that the bank did not have the legal right to have an equitable mortgage. This action caused the bank to file an appeal to the US 6th Circuit Court, where, finally, in January of 2012 the higher court denied the equitable mortgage.
Most would consider this a big win, however, if this was a big win, I wouldn’t be sitting here, almost seven years later, feeling compelled to write this letter of regret. The entire time that we were embroiled in this fight, we were continually told that we were not to make any repairs to the home (after all it might go back to the bank). The bank (six years after the avoidance of the mortgage and a year-and-a-half after the circuit court’s decision) still have their names on our deed and have placed forced insurance upon our home that has been billed to us on our ever growing “escrow” that we weren’t entitled to when we actually had a mortgage…and the coup de grâce, the bank is reporting that we are over 80-months delinquent on our non-existent “mortgage”.
We have had to hire another law firm to straighten out this mess and after speaking with our lawyer, this will be another long, drawn out affair. We have attempted to file a claim against the insurance, however, it is likely the bank will rescind the insurance based on a “mutual mistake of fact” (the original servicer, midway through the appeals process sold the non-existent mortgage to another servicer)…so, in other words, oops, sorry we didn’t tell you that the mortgage we sold you had no validity, no hard feelings.
We have contacted every agency that we can think of to try and get help with our situation, only to be told that because our credit is shot we, most likely, would not be able to get any help if there was any help available in the first place.
There is no quick fix for us. We decided to stand up against a crime that was committed against us and this is the consequences of an average American going toe to toe with the banks. They will chew you up and spit you out without any regard for the laws that govern us, the “average” Americans. So, therefore, I feel compelled to apologize to my neighbors and community and let you know that this is not what we want and every day we make strides to overcome what the last ten years has done to our lives. I will not apologize for fighting a crime or standing on principle, but I know that my decisions now have consequences for my neighbors and neighborhood. I hope that this will at least give our neighbors answers to the why “it is what it is”.
~
This is why we all have to serve on juries. There’s litigation coming down the pike that
deals with wrongful foreclosure, and we’ve got to be there because we understand exactly what’s happened.
Jury’s will only help those that can afford to go to court, I tried and was shot down, and serving them alone will take more than what most have left. Not to mention, Jury selection is ridiculous by it’s self!
Who gets to see a jury…it’s all the judges (at least in our case). This isn’t like a criminal trial; this is, especially in the bankruptcy courts, a fight between attorney’s about how much a creditor is going to receive…Now, maybe in state court you can get a jury; but that was never the case for us…
Mine was the same issue here in CA. There is an order from the state of CA stopping the company that sold me the crap they called a “loan” 9 months after we closed. Two different offences, not to mention MERS was no recognized here from the State in 2005, but no one seems to care about that. This is all BS and they have worn us down. The rest are in hiding.
Ridiculously Depraved – Period.
This whole mess started in April 2010 when a Bank instructed their collection Attorneys Feiwell and Hannoy P.C to file a foreclosure lawsuit against us regarding a home/mortgage we sold months prior.
We sold and closed the mortgage by way of Remax Real Estate and Chicago Title Company on January 6, 2010. Funds were wired to the Bank and received by the Bank within a couple of days of the closing.
In late April 2010 my wife and I each received letters in the mail from the Foreclosure Mill Feiwell and Hannoy P.C. stating that we were being sued for foreclosure on the very home we sold in January 2010. A few days later we were served with wrongful foreclosure lawsuits. We tried to contact Feiwell and Hannoy and explain to them that we did not own the home and to get them to stop the foreclosure process, They would not respond to our constant pleas. We contacted everyone we could think of including our State Representatives, Attorney General, Governor’s office and the list goes on and on. Everyone we contacted suggested we get an attorney. The Bank and Feiwell and Hannoy ignored us and continued the lawsuit process without any acknowledgement of our constant pleas to stop the lawsuit. In early June 2010 after exhausting every avenue we could think of to stop the wrongful foreclosure lawsuit, we retained an Attorney. Even with an attorney on our side Feiwell and Hannoy P.C. still proceeded with their wrongful foreclosure lawsuit. It wasn’t until late July 2010 before they dismissed their lawsuit against us, by then our lives were literally turned upside down and in shambles. Our Attorney filed a complaint against Feiwell and Hannoy in April 2011 for violating the FDCPA. Since then our attorney withdrew his appearance, and left us holding the bag, we’ve had to continue the process as pro se litigants.
A lawsuit was filed against the Bank separately in 2010 regarding their involvement in the wrongful foreclosure. The Bank decided to settle with us. We were supposed to receive a settlement check and other documents by the Bank by the end of January 2012 as per the settlement agreement we agreed to on December 20, 2011. We still have not received the check or funds. In late January 2013 we received two separate 1099 Misc. and immediately forwarded them to our attorney as requested, we heard nothing more until we sat down with our tax expert in April 2013. Our tax expert explained to us that Bank of America reported to the IRS that they had paid us the amount on the 1099 Misc. forms. We explained to him that we had not received any money from Bank of America. He told us we had to address that issue before we were able to file our taxes. On April 3, 2013 we questioned our attorney about this aspect and she filed a motion to withdrawl and a motion of Attorney’s lien. Every step of the legal process has been an uphill battle; the legal process has made us feel as though we were the guilty party from day one. No one has believed us, especially the Magistrate Judge assigned to our cases. We have been beat down to the point we fear for our own well-being. What avenue does the innocent party take if not for the legal process?? We just want someone interested enough to just listen to us.
FAST FORWARD TO MARCH 2013
On March 11, 2013 a status/settlement teleconference was initiated by Magistrate Judge Denise K. LaRue by order of Chief Judge Robert Young, the Magistrate began the teleconference on a subject matter regarding our Motion to compel discovery documents. The Magistrate began the teleconference by questioning our need for the requested discovery documents. There were a total of 34 separate items of request. The Magistrate kept denying each item up to the first six of the 34. The defendants attorney even noted that the information the Magistrate was questioning my wife on weren’t necessary and would be addressed in their upcoming response due by March 18th 2013, but the Magistrate continued going through each motion to compel items and denying them right after another. My wife had gotten so frustrated at the Magistrate’s demeanor that she became physically ill, and while not thinking clearly my wife retaliated and told the Magistrate she was physically ill and inadvertently released the call. My wife spent the next hour or more in the bathroom physically ill and vomiting; she was unable to return to work and was unable to stop crying for two days. I have never seen my wife so distraught and emotional before this. I was deeply concerned for my wife’s well-being and fear my wife was on the verge of a physical and mental breakdown.
My wife’s profession as a Quality Auditor requires her to be out of town most of the time, and while my wife was out of town a letter from the courts arrived in the mail. I opened the letter to find that Magistrate LaRue is ordering my wife to appear in her Indianapolis, Indiana courtroom in person to Show Cause. I didn’t have the heart to tell my wife about the letter while she was out of town nor could I bear the thought of what affect it would have on her, I fear the devastation will send her over the edge. My wife is a professional and has never shown any disrespect to anyone, mainly a Magistrate Judge. She hasn’t even had a traffic ticket for pity sakes. She has always respected the legal system.
My wife returned home on April 5th 2013, and the following day I sat down with my wife and told her about the Magistrate’s Order to Show Cause. As I feared, the news sent her into a spiraling out of control whirlwind of emotions. She swears she does not remember the comments the Magistrate referred to as saying: A Mickey Mouse Operation, but does remember getting physically ill. Two days later On April 8th 2013 my wife was still so emotionally distraught that I had to take her to our Physician. The Doctor comforted her, placed her on a very strong prescription of anxiety medication and referred her to a psychologist for further evaluation and diagnosis; in the meantime the Doctor instructed her to call a help hotline for more immediate help.
Up until this fiasco we both have respected the legal system. We now understand why people avoid the legal process altogether. When a Magistrate Judge is permitted to destroy another person’s life with malice then it becomes incomprehensible and just plain cruel. This Magistrate Judge should be fully aware the hardship this will certainly cause both my wife and I, not counting the financial liability involved in taking time off from her employment, airfare from Naples Florida to Indiana, hotel, car rental, meals etc. It’s very apparent there will be nothing to gain here, other than the Magistrate’s self-satisfaction of humiliating, belittling and utterly destroying my wife’s life. The emotional roller coaster we’ve been forced to ride has taken a toll on both of us, my wife especially. In the beginning all we tried to do was stop a wrongful act perpetrated against us, and ensures there were processes in place to deter the same thing from happening to anyone else. We are now totally convinced that if we had it to do over again we would have been better off allowing the wrongful foreclosure to proceed. We realize we would have had to pay monies we did not owe, and other lives would have been affected, but in the interim we would have saved our mental and physical capabilities. The anguish we’ve suffered and continue to suffer throughout this nightmare has been intolerable to say the least. We are both under a doctor’s care, both mentally and physically.
Our understanding of the Judiciary obligation to the people is quite different from what continues to happen. Our understanding of the Judiciary’s obligation is to uphold and promote the independence, integrity, and Impartiality of the office, while avoiding impropriety and the appearance of impropriety, not to hold bias tendencies, mistreat, antagonize, or bully another human being to the point of doing things they normally would not do. We have always believed the people have the right to be heard in order to allow for a level and fair playing field. As Martin Luther King quoted “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Truth, Justice and The American way is literally becoming a myth. We as People are beginning to lose confidence in the very thing we hold so dear, and unclear to the intent of which instituted the pledge of allegiance; I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Are these just words for the purpose of history or do they still contain merit and meaning???
Our observation is quite clear, in order to get any justice whatsoever, you either need to be a scholar in law, or filthy rich to afford quality legal representation. It’s been made very evident the Pro Se litigant has no chance in the legal arena. JUSTICE FOR ALL??
Our complaint was very simple. WE DID NOT OWN THE HOME THEY TRIED TO FORECLOSE ON. We are not crybabies we are human beings trying to fix a problem through the legal process.
My wife and I have both served the United States through the military capacity and service, we have always had the upmost respect for our country and the legal arenas, we are not about to disrespect either one. If either one of us has disrespected them we humbly apologize from the bottom of our hearts.
What really adds insult to injury is that when a bank breaches a contract there are no punitive damages allowed…if I had done that to you, you would have been able to get punitive compensation…but not when its the banks. What good are laws if they don’t apply to everyone and every entity…breaking the law is breaking the law…there is no way around that.
I feel for you Mr. Leforge. I know you have been out here just about as long as I have. As a kindred spirit, know that there are people out here that totally understand where you are coming from. We, as homeowners, have been so damaged by the system; however, when we react emotionally to the pain that has been inflicted upon us, the law turns a deaf ear; not interested in the human emotion that this financial wreaking ball has created, showing only interest in what faceless creditors may lose out on. The (the courts) turn their backs on the emotionally crippled homeowner to support those who have blatantly, ruthlessly and with total disregard for the laws that govern this land, raped most of the homeowners in this country of their pride, their dignity and their public trust.
Please share this article viguoursuly…we need to let people know what is truly happening in our country…and seeing that media won’t help; I’m praying affected homeowners, like you Dave, will help me push this message. God bless and may your days get better:)
Here’s an idea that could draw some attention. There are many very talented people out there who would have the ability to to produce a show. Reality tv is all the rage now….so why not do a show from actual foreclosure or foreclosure related court hearings. Kangaroo court in live action. My mind is whirling with ideas. As the hearing goes on there could be a “Colbert” type newcaster commenting on what is happening with a clever spin that will clearly show (emphasis) how the law is simply being tossed aside in favor of the banks. If the show is clever and funny it might build up an audience that will show those “sleeping”, what is really going on with our money and even if not involved, their tax dollars. Done right…it could be a very successful show. We could get a group together to collaborate and work together on a funny, clever reality tv show with the intention of bringing these serious issues to public attention. If we can’t do it ourselves as a group, we could put the idea together in detail, get a copyright, and submit it out. If it was really successful, we could set up a fund and donate a portion to help those fighting these criminals. I could put it together and submit the idea myself, but like the say more heads are better than one. If we can’t use actual hearings in actual courts, it could be a show taken from actual cases with actors for the characters but taken from actual transcripts. Seize the opportunity to really show the injustice to millions of people. Just picture a ‘George Kastanza’ as the defrauded homeowner, ‘Kramer’ as the bought off judge, ‘Elaine’ the court recorder….etc. There could be a blurb at the end of each show stating that this was a reinactment of a real case. Remember the show, ‘Night Court’, well this could be ‘Foreclosure Court’. You would get people talking then. Can you hear it….” oh that could not be what really happened. A court couldn’t do that; right? The show could be a winner both as good satire and get out there what is really happening in courtrooms all around the country!
Excellent Idea Katherine!
There are a couple of different ways to go. A real live straight reality show where a reporter will go to hearings provided that legal permission is given or a sitcom type show using the facts from real cases but the characters are actors and it would be in comedy format such as SNL type characters. Shows that come to my mind would be an episode based on, say like, daveleforge’s case situation above. That could be one entire show “this could happen to you”. Actor judges in their foreclosure kangaroo courts basing court rulings on anything but the law. The possibilities are endless. If the show is popular and people not so personally involved in this, would most likely say this couldn’t really have happened? What better publicity is out there that would show all these bafoons for who they really are and what is happening to our legal rights and freedoms.
I will be giving a lot of thought to this in the coming days and figure out the best approach and how to submit a well written detailed idea to producers. Maybe if I write a letter to Michael Moore he would have suggestions? Never hurts to try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. There is more than one way to skin a “fish” (i like cats), we just have to find it.
I now have some serious soul searching to do to decide whether to settle with the thieves or not and demand to go to trial. If I settle, I have to start looking for a new place to live. With 3 pups that will not be easy!
There is a lot of soul searching involved when you take on these types of criminals. There have been many times when I paused, wondering why I put my husband and I through this…and then I realized that I’m not putting us through anything, the bank is. We founded this country based on principles and established laws to protect…over the past century that has gotten away from us and somehow we need to get this back. We need to get everyone that has been affected on board…the show idea seems that it could be a very instrumental tool to get this info out here. I know your soul is being tortured, but that is when we are at our strongest…remember that. …and again, at the cost of repeating myself…please share and thank you:)
Sheryl,
Yes, as hard as it is to process, the country has run amuck. Those not so affected yet just seemed dazed and confused and many are in denial because they can’t believe how our rights are being taken away from us little by little, piece by piece. At the pace we are going, I could envision a totalitarian government in effect in my lifetime. Indeed it is frightening. For those of us that remember ‘Watergate’, remember the anger and uproar it caused. Now, people seem oblivious to the complete and total disregard of our laws and let banking and wall street cartels blatantly steal homes and money run it through the ‘laundry’ process and open new banks overseas with our money. The icing on the cake is the fact that when confronted they are outraged that the peons would complain. It’s all insane. God Bless.
Don’t settle with them, they won’t pay you, we know first hand
.
As for the TV show, I think writers like Larry David and Jerry seinfld would be fantastic. A Show About Something.
🙂 Yes, very much about something!
I love your Idea of a tv show directed around foreclosure court, I too have pondered the idea around in my mind, it can’t be no worse than some of the reality shows
that are out there now, at least it will be informative.
What a terrible and totally unnecessary ordeal you’ve been through. My condolences and well wishes go out to you. We’re experiencing rampant transfer of wealth in the country from the middle class to the 1%, condoned by the immense forces of government. As George Carlin used to say, “It’s a big club….and you ain’t in it”. Me neither.
Thank you for your sentiments…George Carlin had it right. Please share with on your social media so that we can get homeowners to start looking at their signatures. Our attorney said that our case was the only one of its kind in the country at that time. I find it hard to believe that my husband and I are that blessed; we are just the only ones that noticed. Thank you for your support.
@suttershome
Great letter and how sad to what lengths banks will go to get another house. Our situation is similar in some ways to yours but we are fighting pro se. I tried for two years to find an attorney to help us but it was wasted energy. However, after reading so many stories of those who spent thousands and thousands in attorney’s fees only to lose would cause me much more hurt and frustration than going it solo. We, too, were forced by deceit into filing a chap. 7. I have studied the bankruptcy code over and over and could probably offer a few tips but I know that there are a few here that are bank snoops and would love nothing more than to make an accusation of offering legal advice. Please read the bankruptcy code carefully and as you read apply it where it might be applicable to your case. You may find some information that you or your attorney is not aware of that could be of use. Best of luck and I hope your letter goes viral so other people out there will start to wake up to what is really taking place here in the great US of A.
My eternal gratitude to 4closurefraud.org for publishing it…Please feel free to share this on your facebook pages…people need to know that this goes deeper than “Robo-signing”; if they have forged your actual signature, trust me that is a whole new ball of wax…our case should help those that find out that they have been wronged in this way. But they have to know…and seeing the media is not willing to take on the task, I would appreciate as much sharing as possible…hopefully, what we are going through now will make the path easier for those that follow.