OntheWilderSide

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(excerpt from) The Telegraph UK
Judge wipes out couple’s mortgage after bank’s ‘repulsive’ behaviour
By Tom Leonard in New York / Nov 26 2009

A New York [from Suffolk County] judge was so angry with a bank’s “harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive” behaviour towards a financially struggling couple that he wiped out their $525,000 (£316,000) mortgage.

In an unusual legal decision that may cheer ordinary homeowners but dismay lenders, Judge Jeffrey Spinner took a tough line on a California-based bank that he considered had been determined to foreclose on the couple’s home in Suffolk County, Long Island.

His ruling against OneWest and its IndyMac mortgage division has relieved Greg Horoski and his wife, Diane Yano-Horoski, of the $291,000 they owed on the original loan as well as $235,000 in interest.

OneWest took $814 million in federal bailout money but has a reputation for foreclosing quickly on property owners who falls into arrears…

The judge attacked the bank for repeatedly refusing to work out a deal, for misleading him about the sums in the case and for its treatment of the couple.

He wrote that OneWest’s conduct was “inequitable, unconscionable, vexatious and opprobrious”, cancelling the debt to deter it from “imposing further mortifying abuse” against the couple.

OneWest, which is owned by a private equity group, said it expected to overturn the “unprecedented” ruling on appeal…

KW: It’s always a good thing when a judge awakens to the fact of how badly industry people and their lawyers are misleading the court. The judge’s realization that the bank was not playing fair could mean more scrutiny for all the corporations that come before him.

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Filed under: local, long island, Long Island Politics, News, politics, US Politics Tagged: | bank bailout, courts, federal bailout, foreclosure, Greg Horoski, Jeff Spinner, Jeffrey Spinner, Judge Jeffrey Spinner, long island, mortgages