Wells Fargo in Violation of 2011 Mortgage Loan Settlement, Judge Says

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On April 15, a federal judge found Wells Fargo Bank is in breach of a 2010 nationwide mortgage loan class action settlement involving adjustable payments for home mortgages, since the bank allegedly did not properly evaluate homeowners who applied for these types of loan payments in order to avoid foreclosure.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg asked Wells Fargo to meet with the plaintiffs in order to find a new way to fix the mortgage loan class action settlement violations, which will need to include steps that will allow homeowners to reapply for loan assistance through Wells Fargo Bank.

Judge Seeborg’s decision is just the most recent of a long list of disputes regarding the 2010 Wells Fargo mortgage loan class action settlement, an agreement which resolved several complaints related to the bank’s “pick-a-payment” loans, many of which were acquired by Wells Fargo during their 2008 acquisition of Wachovia Corp.

These pick-a-payment loans allowed borrowers to initially pay less interest than was due on their mortgage; however, the escalating payments that came later as a result of these types of mortgage loans contributed to the thousands of home foreclosures that occurred during the country’s 2007-2009 housing crisis. For years the plaintiffs’ legal representatives argued Wells Fargo was in violation of the Wells Fargo mortgage loan class action settlement agreement, in that the bank was not granting loan modifications that would have been worth $2.7 billion to homeowners with Wells Fargo pick-a-payment mortgage loans. These modifications were an integral part of the Wells Fargo mortgage loan settlement agreement, which also stipulated the bank would pay $50 million to eligible Class Members.

However, according to the plaintiffs’ new Wells Fargo mortgage loan class action lawsuit, the bank was not using proper methodologies to evaluate whether or not a homeowner was at risk of imminent default, which would have qualified them for loan assistance under the previous Wells Fargo mortgage loan class action settlement.

The plaintiffs’ legal representatives in this mortgage loan class action lawsuit allege thousands of homeowners were denied the mortgage assistance due to them because Wells Fargo Bank used faulty methods to measure their financial hardships pertaining to the pick-a-payment home loans.

In his recent ruling, Judge Seeborg reprimanded both sides of this Wells Fargo mortgage loan class action lawsuit, stating that it seemed that neither side knew exactly what “they agreed to more than four years ago,” during the initial Wells Fargo mortgage loan class action settlement. However, the judge agreed with the plaintiffs’ arguments that the bank breached the settlement agreement by using “evolving” and “ill-defined” standards when determining homeowners’ loan modification applications.

The court has ordered that both Wells Fargo and the suing plaintiffs present a joint or competing proposals to correct the mortgage loan class action settlement violations to be submitted within the next two weeks.

The Wells Fargo Mortgage Loan Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Wachovia Corp. “Pick-A-Payment” Mortgage Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, Case No. 3:09-md-02015, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.