Maryland Foreclosure Lawyer Blog

The attorney's signatures on the first case that XYZ filed looked "funny" - they were too neat! After I saw several other cases from the same attorney in XYZ I became curious - the signatures appeared to be inconsistent. Finally I reviewed one case where the signatures were so different that I compared all of the signatures side by side. They were different; so different that I hired a handwriting expert who confirmed that there were four different people signing for the attorney and two different people signing for one of the notaries.

I want to put this into prospective. Someone signed an affidavit for attorney Bernie Lawyer. Then a notary swore that Bernie Lawyer appeared in front of him/her and signed the affidavit in person. These affidavits were submitted as a condition of going forward with the foreclosure.

When confronted, XYZ dismissed the foreclosure case and allowed my client the opportunity to attempt to modify the loan. However in the middle of modification XYZ brought a second foreclosure action. The servicer for Two South Lender, Jones Servicer claimed that my client submitted a modification package that was illegible. That was not true. I submitted the package myself and it was pristine.

Upon further inspection of the file I noticed something odd. Joan Smith of Two South Lender swore that the copy of the note that was attached to the first case was a true and correct copy of the original. John Doe of Two South Lender swore that the copy of the note that was attached to the second case was a true and correct copy of the original. The problem was the endorsement pages were different. How can copies of the same signature page differ so much? They can't. One or both were counterfeit.

Two days before "trial" I learned that XYZ received the original note on August 10, 2009. Joan Smith signed her affidavit saying that the copy was a true and correct copy of the original on September 21, 2009. John Doe signed the affidavit on December 14, 2009. How could they say that it was a true and accurate copy of the original when, in both cases, the note was 1000 miles away?

XYZ sold my client's home and we took exception to the sale. The judge overruled the exceptions. We are filing an appeal, but for now Jones Servicer and XYZ are probably celebrating the fact that they were able to submit false affidavits, counterfeit documents and ignore their obligation under the HAMP guidelines to take away my client's property. Did she owe the money? Yes. However, like millions of other homeowners who could be helped by the HAMP program she has, for the moment, lost her house.

My client has two grandchildren living with her while their mother, her daughter, serves with the military in the Afghanistan/Iraq wars. Yes, my client's daughter is risking her life to preserve our rights and freedom, and until changed, the rights of XYZ and Jones Servicer to submit fraudulent/counterfeit documents to make her children homeless.

The due process clause of the 14th Amendment did not always exist. Indeed, the only federal rights of due process are contained in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution - "nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. . ." The problem was that the Fifth Amendment only applied to the federal government. The states could freely violate citizens' Fifth Amendment rights, that is - until the 14th Amendment. The part of the 14th Amendment pertinent to this article reads "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

Due process rests upon notice and an opportunity to be heard. That is, you have a right to be notified when any action is taken against you and you have a right to be heard in court. The question in my mind is whether it will take another constitutional amendment to force the courts to recognize that homeowners have due process rights.

In Maryland, a party facing foreclosure has fifteen (15) days to respond to the papers that he gets from the Substitute Trustee. How does the homeowner know that he only has fifteen (15) days to respond? He doesn't! In every other proceeding in Maryland where a natural person or corporate entity is made a party to an action that defendant must be notified of the court action by serving him with a summons. A summons is an official court document that informs the defendant that an action has been filed against him and that he has a certain number of days (in Maryland, 30 days) to answer the claims made against him.

However, in a foreclosure action the only thing that the homeowner gets are copies of papers that have been allegedly filed with the court, may contain a case caption, but most often no case number. There is no official notice from the court. There is no notice that the landowner can lose his property if he does not act immediately.

In all other actions, if the defendant does not respond to the complaint, the plaintiff must ask the court for an order stating that the defendant is in default. The court issues an order of default and serves the order of default on the defendant. The defendant has thirty (30) days to vacate the order of default.

In a Maryland foreclosure action, if the defendant fails to respond within the fifteen (15) days but then does respond, the defendant has to "show cause" why the court should accept his response. Some courts will actively accept a late response, while others routinely deny such a request regardless of the circumstances.

I recently had a case where the entity allegedly holding the note did not exist. Instead of throwing the case out of court because the plaintiff's agent did not exist, the judge allowed the plaintiff to sell the subject property. The reason? Because the defendant did not file within the 15 days.

We are appealing this case because it is a travesty of justice.