Lenders Owning Foreclosed, Dilapidated Cincy Homes Dodge Criminal Trial By Failing To Show Up In Court; City Legal Tactic Copies Cleveland Approach

In Hamilton County, Ohio, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports:

• Cincinnati prosecutors tried a controversial legal tactic Friday in the city's ongoing campaign to get banks and other corporations to take care of foreclosed and abandoned properties they own. In Hamilton County Municipal Court, Assistant City Prosecutor Keith C. Forman asked a judge to proceed with trials against three corporate defendants - even though the companies and their lawyers failed to show up.(1) [...] But Judge Russell J. Mock denied the city's motion, saying he's not convinced that the law allows it in misdemeanor housing cases. [...] The city had building inspectors and neighbors lined up to testify.

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• The city's attempt is fashioned after Cleveland, where Housing Court Judge Raymond L. Pianka has used it against speculators, landlords and banks. But two recent appellate decisions out of Cleveland are split on whether such trials are legal, and one of those cases is now before the Ohio Supreme Court.

• In one Cleveland ruling, the appeals court conceded that its decision "leaves a difficult gap in the law."(2) Corporations can't be arrested and jailed, so they can escape responsibility by simply failing to appear in court.

For more, see Corporations avoid trial by not showing up (City's attempt to try landlords fails).

Go here for other posts on code violation & other problems associated with homes in legal limbo.

(1) The trial in the absence of a defendant - or "in absentia," in legal jargon - is allowed against corporations in some cases under Ohio law, the story states.

(2) See City of Cleveland v. Wash. Mut. Bank, No. 91379, 2008 Ohio 6956; 2008 Ohio App. LEXIS 5827 (Ohio Ct. App. 8th Dist., Cuyahoga County; December 31, 2008), footnote 1. responsibility code violations foreclosure