Indiana Couple File Federal Robosigner Suit Seeking Class Action Status; Allege Violations Of RICO, Debt Collection Statutes

In Indianapolis, Indiana, The Indianapolis Star reports:

• An Indianapolis law firm has filed one of the first suits in the nation seeking class-action status in its case against mortgage lenders and servicers who used questionable tactics in thousands of home foreclosures. The federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Cohen and Malad, which specializes in class-action cases. The case comes as the smoldering foreclosure issue threatens to erupt into a national crisis for the mortgage industry.

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• Richard E. Shevitz, a Cohen and Malad attorney, said he's fielding calls from dozens of other lawyers and homeowners asking how they might join the lawsuit or file a similar one. The lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, must be certified as a class action by a court before it can be opened to other plaintiffs. That could take months or even years. "We'll try to move this case forward as aggressively as we can," Shevitz said.

• The plaintiff in the lawsuit is a Knightstown couple, Dwayne and Melisa Davis, who allege that two affidavits filed by their lender in their foreclosure were signed by "robo-signers" known to have scribbled their signatures on hundreds or thousands of foreclosure documents without personally reading them and sometimes using different titles and employer names.(1)

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• The two bank officials who signed the affidavits used to foreclose on the Davises' home in 2008 and sell it at a sheriff's sale are women whose names have come up in lawsuits in other states as "robo-signers."(2)

For more, see Indiana foreclosure suit seeks class action (Knightstown couple who lost home allege document 'robo-signers' aided lenders).

For the lawsuit, see Davis v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., et al.

See also Cohen & Malad Files National Class Action Lawsuit Against Lenders for Using Perjured Testimony to Obtain Foreclosures.

(1) "The defendants' and their enterprises' activities amounted to a conspiracy to undermine the justice system in foreclosure proceedings," the 25-page lawsuit says. "This foreclosure churning apparatus . . . allowed the defendants to . . . throw families from their homes with callous disregard for the basic protections of the law and established American notions of justice."

(2) The robosigners involved in the foreclosure at issue are the notorious Keri Selman, who gave a title as an assistant vice president for Countrywide Home Loans, and the equally notorious Melissa Viveros, who gave her title as vice president of Countrywide, according to the Davis lawsuit. See paragraph 66 of the lawsuit:

• Like Selman, Melissa Viveros is a known robo-signer. She discloses publicly on her LinkedIn profile that she manages a team of 340 foreclosure specialists for Bank of America, and handles "a portfolio of approzimately 140,000 specialty, subprime, VA FHA accounts ensuring that state foreclosure timelines were met accordingly."