Maryland Man Who Lost Home To Foreclosure Despite Making All Payments Has Appeal Heard

The Baltimore Sun reports:

• Kwaku Atta Poku, the Columbia cab owner who lost his family's townhouse to foreclosure after a refinancing, despite having made every mortgage payment, [got] another chance to present his case [Monday] in Maryland's highest court. In arguments that could change how lower courts handle foreclosure cases, attorneys for the immigrant from Ghana are fighting to overturn rulings in favor of Washington Mutual Inc., the national mortgage company that took and resold his Howard County house in 2005.

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• Atta Poku is worried that his distant relatives and friends still think he did something wrong, even though Shane Winn, a spokesman for Washington Mutual, has said the company doesn't blame him for the foreclosure. Winn said his firm never received payment for the first mortgage, and Atta Poku was unable to prove it was paid off when he refinanced, partly because crucial financial documents were lost by the financial institutions involved in the transaction.

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• Phillip Robinson, executive director of Civil Justice, Inc. public-interest law firm, said there is more at stake than one man and his family. "With Atta Poku's case, they'll [Court of Appeals] have an opportunity to reshape the Maryland foreclosure process." Robinson said more people are losing their homes to mortgage companies and banks, and the court can decide if Maryland's foreclosure process "adequately meets various constitutional standards."

For more, see Evicted owner to air appeal (Md. court gets case that could change foreclosure rules) (Baltimore Sun - 12-3-07).

For story update, see (5-4-08) New laws too late in loss of home (Ghanaian immigrant continues struggle, says options limited).

For additional background on this story:

• Foreclosure victim seeks relief from Maryland Court of Appeals (Baltimore Sun - 12-4-07),
• Watch archived webcast of Monday's oral arguments in the Maryland Court of Appeals,
• Links to earlier Baltimore Sun articles on this story,
• Prior posts on this story.