Chase To Cough Up $56M In Cash, Debt Cancellations, Home Title Recoveries To 6,000 Servicemembers Screwed Over By Fee Gouging, Wrongful Foreclosures

In Beaufort, South Carolina, Bloomberg reports:

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), one of the lenders criticized over improper foreclosures on military families’ homes, agreed to pay $56 million to settle claims it overcharged service members on their mortgages.
• JPMorgan will pay $27 million in cash to about 6,000 active-duty military personnel who were overcharged on their mortgages, cut interest rates on soldiers’ home loans and return homes that were wrongfully foreclosed upon, according to settlement terms filed in federal court in Beaufort, South Carolina.
• JPMorgan officials said three months ago that one of the bank’s units had made errors in the handling of mortgages covered by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. That law was enacted in 1942 to shield deployed military personnel from financial stress.

***

• Under the terms of the settlement, [lead plaintiff, Marine Captain and fighter pilot Jonathon] Rowles and an estimated 6,000 other service personnel whose mortgage accounts were mishandled will split $27 million in cash, according to court filings. That will provide an average payout of $4,500 per soldier. Recoveries in the cases will vary based on service member’s individual damage claims.
• The lender has agreed to return houses that have been improperly foreclosed upon and not yet sold and to pay fair market value for those already auctioned off, according to the filing.
• It also will forgive any remaining mortgage debt of military borrowers who were protected by the law and mistakenly foreclosed upon.

***

• U.S. District Judge Margaret B. Seymour still must approve the class-action settlement before it becomes final. “We are very satisfied with this negotiated settled as are our clients,” Richard Harpootlian, a Columbia, South Carolina-based lawyer representing soldiers who sued the bank over the mortgage miscues, said in an interview.

***

• A Michigan judge found in 2009 that Saxon Mortgage, the Morgan Stanley unit, and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas violated the servicemembers law by foreclosing on a U.S. Army sergeant’s home in Michigan. The case later settled and terms of the accord weren’t made public.(1)

For the story, see JPMorgan Chase Settles Military Mortgage Overcharging Suit for $56 Million.

For the original lawsuit filed in this case, see Rowles v. Chase Home Finance LLC.

See Firedogake: JPMorgan Settlement Continues Their Persistent Attention to Just One Type of Foreclosure Fraud for some commentary on this settlement.

(1) See Feds Start Probe Into Saxon For Possible SCRA Violations As Mortgage Servicer Settles With Screwed Over, Foreclosed Sevicemember During Damages Trial. (For the original lawsuit, see Hurley vs. Deutsche Bank National Trust, et al.).

See also, Georgia Soldier Scores $20M+ Jury Award For Getting Mortgage Company Jerk-Around From Loan Servicer, where, in a third case, a Michigan army sergeant stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia recently found himself on the receiving end of a $20M+ jury verdict after being screwed over by a mortgage company. (For the original lawsuit, see Brash v. PHH Mortgage Corporation).