10,000 GMAC foreclosures stopped in Maryland

Written by Biloxi

What is interesting on this foreclosure case in Maryland is that the case was not filed by attorneys or state Attoney Generals but by law students from the University of Maryland.

Peter Holland of the University of Maryland School of Law, decided to stop lecturing and start doing.  Mr. Holland got his class of law students involved in actually suing GMAC for submitting false documents to court in foreclosed homes. With the hardwork from the law students, the law student forced GMAC to dismiss every case in Maryland relying on robo-signing affidavits. Here is the story from Firedoglake website:

In a major ruling Friday, a coalition of nonprofit defense lawyers and consumer protection advocates in Maryland successfully got over 10,000 foreclosure cases managed by GMAC Mortgage tossed out, because affidavits in the cases were signed by Jeffrey Stephan, the infamous GMAC “robo-signer” who attested to the authenticity of foreclosure documents without any knowledge about them, as well as signing other false statements.



The University of Maryland Consumer Protection Clinic and Civil Justice, Inc., a nonprofit, filed the class action lawsuit, arguing that any case using Jeffrey Stephan as a signer was illegitimate and must be dismissed. In court Friday, GMAC agreed to dismiss every case in Maryland relying on a Stephan affidavit. They can refile foreclosure actions on the close to 10,000 homes, but only at their own expense, and subject to new Maryland regulations which require mandatory mediation between borrower and lender before moving to foreclosure. Civil Justice and the Consumer Protection Clinic also want any cases with affidavits from Xee Moua of Wells Fargo, who has also admitted to robo-signing, thrown out, but that case has not yet been settled.

Both Jeffery Stephan and Xee Moua acknowledged in depositions that they signed hundreds of affidavits a day without the legally required "personal knowledge" of that information. Of course, GMAC's loss doesn't mean that GMAC will stop processing foreclosure on homes, but this case put GMAC on notice that any homes in foreclosure that take to court in Maryland with robo-signed affidavits will be challenged and tossed out in court. I will not be surprising to me if other law students in other states take University of Maryland School of Law challenge. If that happens, banks need to worry.