Servicemember Screwed Over By Court-Appointed Lawyer's Lack Of Action Now Seeks To Undo Foreclosure Sale Of Home Sold Out From Under Him While On Duty

In Tampa, Florida, WFTS-TV/ABC Action News reports:

• While they are fighting for our nation overseas, some military personnel are losing their homes to foreclosure here at home. In the thick of battle, in the heat of the fight, it's the last thing a GI should have to worry about. While Coast Guardsman Keith Johnson was fighting for our country overseas, he was losing a battle here at home, for his home. A battle, he claims, he had no idea was being waged until the moment he got back and spoke to his wife.
• "It just boggled my mind. I got back and she said 'the house is basically foreclosed' and I was like 'What do you mean?'" Johnson says.
• At the same time Johnson and his wife Alysia were negotiating with their lender, Wells Fargo, to modify the mortgage on their Clearwater home, the bank's lawyers were foreclosing on the property, getting a summary judgment, and auctioning it off.

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• The I-Team has uncovered case after case in the Tampa area, around Florida, and the nation where banks have foreclosed on the homes of active duty military personnel. In Johnson's case, Tampa Attorney Jay Passer was appointed by the court to track him down and protect his rights.
• He said he went to neither their home nor the base to find Johnson. If Passer had only contacted Johnson’s unit at Air Station Clearwater or used the Coast Guard's world-wide personnel locator, Johnson said, "My command would have informed me immediately -- immediately."
• Instead, Passer sent a letter to the Pentagon. He never received an answer from them. "It was not known to me. It was never explained to me, and I never received a response to any of that," Passer said.
• With no defenses to the foreclosure filed on his behalf, Wells Fargo obtained a summary judgment and auctioned off Johnson's home.

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• Johnson and his new attorney are now petitioning the court to undo the foreclosure. "We're going to get in front of a judge and I believe the judge is going to undo this sale," says Johnson's attorney Matt Weidner.

For more, including the responses from Wells Fargo and the snoozing court-appointed attorney, see Banks find it easy to skirt federal laws protecting servicemembers from foreclosure (Clearwater Coast Guardsman Fights Foreclosure).