Thursday, April 07, 2011

Jury Awards Homeowner $21 Million In Mortgage Lawsuit

A federal jury has awarded a Georgia man more than $21 million in a lawsuit pitting the homeowner against one of the nation's largest mortgage servicers.


U.S. Army sergeant David Brash was awarded the damages in March, after a Columbus, Ga. jury found that PHH Mortgage, the country's eighth largest mortgage servicer, had incorrectly reported Brash to credit score companies as "seriously delinquent" despite the fact that all his mortgage payments had been automatically deducted from his paycheck.

According to court documents, Brash sent letters to the mortgage company that went unanswered, violating federal laws. When he called his mortgage company to find out why his payments were not going through, his attorneys said, he was repeatedly routed to overseas customer services staff who couldn't answer his questions.

"PHH's corporate representative testified that call center representatives had limited access to information," Teresa Abell, one of Brash's attorneys told The Huffington Post. Some of Brash's calls -- which were automatically recorded by PHH -- were played in court, Abell explained. "The jury got a flavor of what would happen, he could be put on hold for 30, 45 or 55 minutes, then representatives would give him whatever story they had concocted," she added. Different representatives told Brash different things, many of which were simply not true, Abell alleged. "They would tell him they would investigate and get back to him in 24 hours, he'd call back, and another representative would tell him "there is no investigation being done on your account.""

Read on.

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