Granite State High Court To Rule On Banking Regulator's Order Voiding Bankster's Mortgage Note In Countrywide 'Bait & Switch' Case

In Manchester, New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Sunday News reports:

• In his last administrative act as banking commissioner, on June 4, 2010, Peter Hildreth ruled that Countrywide Home Loans violated the state’s consumer protection law when it switched the terms of a Manchester woman’s mortgage just days before her closing.



• He ordered the mortgage giant, which was purchased by Bank of America in 2008, to void the mortgage note, repay the woman’s money and pay her closing costs and legal fees. Countrywide appealed, and last week the case landed in the state Supreme Court.



• The case goes to the heart of New Hampshire’s version of the Consumer Protection Act. The Legislature has established that four regulated industries — banking, insurance, securities and public utilities — are exempt from the CPA; instead, it’s the commissioners of those departments who enforce the law against unfair and deceptive trade practices.



• Among the issues the high court must decide is whether the homeowner filed her original complaint and request for a rehearing within the legal time limits, and whether Hildreth acted properly in the kind of restitution he ordered.

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• Countrywide’s attorneys argue the law did not allow Hildreth to order attorney’s fees and vacate the mortgage note. And [the homeowner's] attorneys say he erred in not awarding her double or triple damages as allowed under the Consumer Protection Act.

For more, see Supreme Court hears mortgage dispute.