Wells Fargo dismissing some Maryland foreclosures

Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. home lender, and a major employer in Minnesota, is dismissing and restarting some foreclosures in Maryland as lawyers for homeowners are set to ask a judge next month to dismiss cases linked to flawed documents.

The San Francisco-based bank began last month dismissing and restarting a portion of its foreclosure cases, spokeswoman Vickee Adams said in interviews yesterday and today. She couldn't specify the number of the dismissals.

Wells Fargo is refiling foreclosure cases in which an affidavit was signed by a Wells Fargo employee and which are at the point of foreclosure sale, Adams said. Other foreclosure cases are proceeding, she said.

"We began to request dismissal of the Wells Fargo foreclosure actions so that we could immediately restart the process of moving each dismissed file to foreclosure," Adams said in a phone interview yesterday.

The company's announcement comes ahead of a hearing next month in a potential class-action lawsuit brought by Maryland homeowner Susan Saidman. Saidman is seeking to dismiss foreclosures tied to documents signed by Wells Fargo employee Xee Moua who works in North Carolina. Lawyers in that case said today they hadn't heard about any dismissals.

"I have no knowledge of them dismissing things," Peter Holland, who runs a University of Maryland law clinic and is working with the nonprofit organization Civil Justice Inc. on behalf of homeowners, said today in a phone interview. "We're hoping Wells Fargo will follow the sensible lead established by GMAC."

Active Foreclosures

Ally Financial Inc.'s GMAC unit said last week it would drop about 250 active foreclosures in the state that are tied to flawed affidavits. GMAC's decision came after Civil Justice agreed to drop a potential class-action lawsuit on behalf of homeowners whose foreclosure documents were signed by Jeffrey Stephan. Stephan said in sworn depositions last year and in 2009 that he signed as many as 10,000 affidavits a month without checking their accuracy.

Moua, the Wells Fargo employee, said in a March deposition in a Florida case that she processed as many as 500 affidavits in two hours without completely checking their accuracy.

Lawyers for Saidman asked a state court in November to recognize foreclosures with affidavits signed by Moua as a class. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 17.

The case is Burson v. Saidman, 323096V, Maryland Circuit Court, Montgomery County (Rockville).