City Of Baltimore/Wells Fargo "Ghetto Loans" Case May Be On Shaky Ground; Judge Questions City's Ability To Prove Huge Losses To Neighborhoods

In Baltimore, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reports:

• A federal judge raised doubts Monday about the city's ability to prove huge financial losses from houses left vacant by Wells Fargo foreclosures, the latest development in a landmark civil suit alleging a pattern of racially based, discriminatory lending by the mortgage broker. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz said he might pare the case, if not outright dismiss it.

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• Baltimore's lawsuit was originally touted as the first filed by a city against a mortgage broker to recover money lost from foreclosure, though comparable suits were also filed in Cleveland and Birmingham, Ala. Both of those suits were dismissed, largely for lack of solid evidence.

• Attorney John Relman, one of a team representing the city in the lawsuit, asked Motz for a chance to show what others could not: actual, specific data. "We can do this analysis," Relman said. "Before you make a decision ... allow us to submit that expert report." In criminal cases, prosecutors hold parties responsible regardless of their contribution to overall crime, and the same should be true here, Relman argued, adding that the case "is not going to cost millions of dollars." "This case cannot and should not be put out prematurely," he said.

For more, see City's lawsuit against Wells Fargo on shaky ground (Judge voices concern about proving foreclosures case against lender).

See also:

• WJZ-TV Channel 13: Judge Considers Restricting Wells Fargo Lawsuit,
• WBAL Radio 1090 AM: Judge Considers Cutting Wells Fargo Lawsuit.

Go here for other posts on this lawsuit, in which some of the lender's employees were accused of using racial slurs to describe minority customers and referred to subprime loans as "ghetto loans."