An attorney who has already won a more than $1 billion award in a malpractice case is now hoping to obtain a multi-billion-dollar award against Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based bank in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The complaint alleges that Wells Fargo’s standard loan documents for adjustable-rate mortgages require it to provide the phone number and title of a “single point of contact.”
The provision is allegedly contained in Section 4(F) of the home lender’s standard documents.
The contact is supposed to be able to answer ARM borrowers’ questions
before the effective date of any increases in the interest rates or payments.
But the Wells Fargo & Co. subsidiary allegedly
intentionally didn’t comply with that provision, according to a news release Thursday from the Law Offices of Keith M. Fromm.
“Such an alleged intentional non-compliance by Wells Fargo, according to the complaint, resulted in the illegal collection by Wells Fargo of many millions or billions of dollars, and the loss of thousands of borrowers’ homes, which may have been saved had they received the consumer protection benefits intended to be afforded by Section 4(F) and its ‘single point of contact’ requirement,” the statement said.
Fromm is working with
Thomas V. Girardi, of Girardi & Keese. Girardi was involved in the lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric that resulted in a $333 settlement. The case was the basis for the movie Erin Brockovich in which Peter Coyote reportedly played a character inspired by Girardi.
Girardi gained notoriety in 1970 for being the first attorney in California to win a more than $1 billion award for a medical malpractice case.
Today’s announcement said that the class action against Wells Fargo is potentially seeking billions in damages.
“The lawsuit alleges that Wells Fargo committed thousands of instances of extortion, theft, mail fraud and racketeering against its hundreds of thousands of ARM borrowers throughout the U.S.,” the statement says.
Wells Fargo
Senior Vice President Executive Communications Vickee Adams explained in a telephone call that the plaintiff in the case, Linda Moravec Varga, originally filed the initial complaint in November 2016.
But Adams noted that the federal court found the complaint to be without merit.
“Wells Fargo Bank will continue to vigorously defend against plaintiff’s claims and expects to prevail in this litigation,” Adams
said in a written statement.
