The Florida Supreme Court is considering whether a bank that used fraudulent documents should be allowed to dismiss a case and refile it later with different paperwork. Regan McCarthy reports the high court is looking into a case that goes back to the robo-signing scandal that overtook Florida a few years ago.
When a New York Bank foreclosed on Roman Pino’s Greenacres home, he sued the bank saying it had back-dated documents in the case. So the bank dismissed the foreclosure and tried to re-file. Pino and the bank have since settled, but a lower court sent the case to the Supreme court saying “many mortgage foreclosures appear to be tainted with suspect documents.” Amanda Lundergan is the lawyer representing Pino in the case:
“This court will never know the facts of how deep the fraud went. We only know the tip of the iceberg and that’s exactly why we’re here.”
The lawyer for the bank says there are legitimate reasons a bank may have for dismissing a case. And he says there are other methods for addressing fraud besides getting rid of a bank’s right for voluntary dismissal. Some say the case’s outcome stands to affect thousands of mortgages across the state.
