Tomorrow morning, May 19 at 9:30, you will have the opportunity to watch one of the most bizarre foreclosure appeals I’ve ever encountered.
HERE IS THE LINK TO THE APPELLATE ARGUMENT IN FLORIDA’S SECOND DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS!
The cliff notes version of the facts are so simple and clear that I’m still scratching my head on how Wells Fargo has the audacity to even bring this appeal….so here you go.
Wells Fargo’s attorneys fail to attach modification agreements to their foreclosure complaint. On the eve of trial, Wells Fargo’s attorneys got cute and dumped 3000 pages of garbage on my office…hundreds of pages that are completely blacked out, hundreds of pages that are white, hundreds of pages that are just nonsense. The Wells Fargo attorneys were so cute, they even dropped in a “Award for Excellence” which was apparently given to the Wells Fargo employee that executed this gross document dump. Have a look below at just how gross and offensive this dump was:
So when we got all 3000+ pages we asked the trial judge for a continuance. The plaintiff’s attorney arrogantly and smugly screamed bloody murder objecting to our request for a continuance, with contempt dripping all over his voice. The judge denied our motion to continue….and I was furious! I honestly had never seen such a gross display of unprofessionalism and I was frankly disgusted that the judge hearing our motion to continue would not agree to give us a continuance if for no other reason than because he recognized the gross conduct of the attorney for Wells Fargo.
So fast forward to the trial…held in front of a different judge and…cutting right to the chase, that good trial judge granted us a defense verdict of foreclosure….based in part on the failure of the Wells Fargo attorneys to disclose the existence of documents they were playing games with….documents they did not attach to the complaint:
In the witness’s own words:
Q Were you aware of these agreements prior to coming
15 to court?
16 A I became aware of them as part of my review of thefile.
18 Q And did you advise Counsel that these modification agreements existed?
20 MR. SMART: Objection. To the extent it calls
21 for attorney/client privilege.
22 THE COURT: Objection be overruled.
23 A I noted the modification — I asked my attorney
24 to — I advised him to make sure that he was aware that they
25existed.
Trial Transcript at 58.
But wait….it gets worse. You see…after the judge granted us a defense verdict…the Wells Fargo attorneys took all their documents…the note, the mortgage…everything…slipped them into their fancy binders….
AND WALKED RIGHT OUT OF COURT WITH THEM!
You really have to understand just how critical this fact is to understand why I am absolutely gobsmacked by this appeal. You see, when you are appealing a judge and claiming that he committed error by ruling against you….
YOU HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO PRESERVE THE RECORD YOU’RE APPEALING!
Even after all these months I still lose my head whenever I think through these facts. I sure cannot imagine how the 2nd District Court of Appeals judges do anything but send this appeal laughing straight out of the courtroom.
Tune in tomorrow 9:30 am!
and here