Chase To Pay $4M Surety Bond For Release Of $400M+ In Promissory Notes, Mortgages 'Held Hostage' By Foreclosure Mill As Firm Continues Employee Purge

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, The Palm Beach Post reports:

• Chase Home Finance will have to pay the Fort Lauderdale-based law firm Ben-Ezra & Katz a $4 million surety bond to get its foreclosure case files back. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida made the ruling Friday after the bank's lawsuit against Ben-Ezra & Katz alleging that the firm was delaying the return of the documents after being fired March 9.
• Chase said the files contain more than $400 million worth of original notes and mortgages "without which Chase will be unable to proceed with any of the pending cases." Ben-Ezra & Katz, which also was let go by federal mortgage backer Fannie Mae in February, said it is owed $6.2 million in legal fees from Chase.

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• On Thursday, the firm filed notice with the state that it planned to lay off 54 employees in May. That follows a staff cut of 236 employees in February. Seven employees from the firm's title company, Brokers' Floridian Title Corp., also are expected to be laid off in May, according to the state report.
• The Boca Raton-based foreclosure firm Shapiro & Fishman also suffered recent layoffs. The firm would not say how many employees it laid off, but it did say the staff cut was not done because of a loss in clients. The two firms are among eight statewide that the Florida attorney general's office is investigating over their foreclosure practices.

For the story, see Court: Chase owes $4 million for files.