We have received news of at least one judge in Florida who is handling the adjudication of cases involving banks and home owners with the use of common sense\u00a0 as well as the law.<\/p>\n
In the matter of Dimitri Jansen, a local schoolteacher whose former home in North Port is in foreclosure a circuit court judge found one of the largest banks in the country in contempt of court on Friday over a foreclosure case that has dragged through the system for several years.<\/p>\n
Attorneys who represent the Sarasota educator say the contempt order against Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, is \u201cunprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jansen says his mother\u2019s name was mistakenly added to the mortgage he obtained in 2006, that the bank has ignored requests to remove her name from the foreclosure documents and thus wrecked her credit history, and that the bank held up a pending short sale.<\/p>\n
Another Sarasota judge, apparently frustrated with U.S. Bank, had ordered the bank\u2019s president to be present in court on Friday. The bank instead sent a senior representative.<\/p>\n
Sarasota Circuit Court Judge Charles Williams<\/a> found the bank in indirect civil contempt. It is unclear what, if any, sanctions the bank will face at the next court hearing in February 2013.<\/p>\n We’ll speculate right here and say we’re sure the judge issued the order\u00a0 with every expectation of compliance by the company president, Richard Davis. We can only hope someone among the legal team of the fifth largest bank in the nation explained to Richard Davis it’s not a good idea to disrespect the court.<\/p>\n Generally when one is disrespectful of the court the judge’s decision isn’t favorable. In this case Richard Davis has opted to We believe, Richard Davis, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President, Chairman of Executive Committee and Member of Risk Management Committee,* according to his profile at Bloomberg Businessweek<\/a>…all those titles make him sound like a foreign potentate; he’s received some very poor legal advice.<\/p>\n We’ve been waiting for the banks, the bankers and their attorneys to be treated as any other US citizen would be treated when standing before the highest officer in the court. We been waiting to see the law apportioned\u00a0 equally.<\/p>\n
\nwave a billboard in the face of the legal system stating, “We’ve willfully disregarded everything in this case
\nIn court documents, the bank argued that it would be \u201clogistically impossible\u201d for the president to appear in court.<\/p>\n