Judgment in a Foreclosure Case….FOR THE DEFENDANT….Another Foreclosure Win For Homeowners!

I have examined the original note, know there is a special endorsement to party other than Plaintiff. I have recent caselaw and know I will win.  Opposing counsel starts thumbing through the file before trial starts and when I see here look at the front and back of the note, I see her utter, “oh &^D” when she realizes she’s in trouble.

I look over at her right at that moment and smile….I know her “little” problem and know that she’s sunk.

She’s…well….she’s…a bit too sure of herself….tells me it won’t matter…she’s gonna win.

Her bank is there and the two of them are pow wowing..typing away on the rep’s laptop that’s in the courtroom.  A few minutes later the opposing counsel comes over to me with the laptop and…..VIOLLA! shows me a screenshot with a special endorsement.

Only problem is how does she get the document that’s stuck inside the laptop computer to magically permanently affix itself to the original note that’s been in the court file?  Hmmm….gotta think about that one….but she swears that it’s a legitimate allonge…they’re had it all along.

I just look at her with contempt.

A few minutes later, judge calls the trial. The moment she hands the witness the note, specially endorsed to another party, I hand the judge Dixon and tell him she cannot win.  She sputters and starts reading off several different sections of her script.  She promises the judge it doesn’t matter because her witness was the “holder”….her witness tries to explain to the judge that the plaintiff was the “holder”. I have to explain to her and the witness that they cannot be the holder of a note endorsed do another party….this is a senior judge who knows more about the uniform commercial code than the whole courtroom combined so he doesn’t require any educating.

She objects to me SURPRISING her with caselaw and objecting claiming….I SWEAR…PREJUDICE……meanwhile the judge reads through several very particular affirmative defenses and announced, “he warned you standing was an issue you should have prepared for this.”

He pretty quickly realizes she’s stuck in the mud, but she has no clue.

Note out. Move on to mortgage..the witness keeps talking about Business Records. No Mortgage in.

Next comes letter.  Hearsay, Foundation, Best Evidence.

No default letter in.

I cross.  One question, “Do you know anything at all about…the party to whom note payable?” No.

She calls my client. First thing she says….”Your honor I’d like to treat this witness as hostile.”

Keep in mind my woman is a 70 year old frail woman with her husband and son in the room…I had to help her walk up to the stand because she’s got congestive heart failure, a fact that’s all over the record due to a prior continuance and a discussion that the judge had before we started, “Mam, are you allright here today…Yes, your honor, just a little short of breath.”

Contemporaneous with my objection the judge calmly rules, “counsel, I’m not going to treat this witness as hostile.”

Anywhoo, my feeble old hostile witness of a defendant was quite clear about trying to deal with the plaintiff and a prior servicer and liquidating lots and lots of money to try and pay the jakals for years…she just kept going on and on and on and on.

Everytime opposing counsel would ask a simple question, it was on and on and on about how no one would take her call and help her.  (I wanted to object and tell my client to just answer the damn question without narrative, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to slip that in.)

Anywhoo, I couldn’t think of anything to cross examine my client on so she hobbled down from the stand and oc made her closing argument, “your honor, we presented all the evidence we need…WE WIN!”

Unfortunately, opposing counsel missed a few relatively minor pieces of evidence (she didn’t get a single piece of evidence in) so the judge proclaimed! VERDICT FOR DEFENDANT!

Opposing c0unsel never mentioned the allonge that was stuck on the computer, but if they certainly could have fabricated that pesky crucial piece of evidence and submitted it to the court…..something that undoubtedly happens over and over and over…..