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was sold for a small fortune by slumlord Keith Rietman,
blog post by John Hoff
JNS blog has been following the "progress" (if that's the word) of a post-eleventh hour, beyond-the-last ditch appeal of a massive judgment against First USA Title, et al.
Click here for previous blog coverage.
First USA Title didn't bother to show up in district court and fight a lawsuit regarding its negligence in a massive mortgage fraud/identity theft scheme which wiped out the credit of John Foster. A house at 1564 Hillside Ave. N. was involved in the scheme. Larry "Maximum" Maxwell went to prison as a result of the fraud.
The civil suit which came out of the Maxwell case resulted in a judgment of more than $800,000. It is expected the judgment will be quite difficult to collect, and that has certainly been the case so far...
Some time after the time to file an appeal had passed, First USA Title is making attempts to file an appeal anyway. The other side (John Foster and his wife) have made a motion that First USA be required to post a cash bond if they're going to be filing stuff with the Court of Appeals.
In an order dated June 7, the Appeals Court ruled First USA Title would, indeed, have to post a cash bond. Click here for a copy of the order.
Stay tuned to JNS blog for ongoing coverage of the civil-suit-that-never-ends.
It actually shouldn't be impossible for Foster to collect. USA Title will undoubtedly be made bankrupt if they haven't already. If they knew about the scam, there could be criminal penalties. Little title companies like that always have one of the big title companies as their underwriter, though. They are agents for, say, Old Republic or Chicago. As such, their underwriter has the responsibility to police their agents. Foster has to go after USA Title's underwriter(s) without whom USA Title could not have been in business in the first place. In the aftermath of the housing meltdown several big underwriters went out of business, but mostly they were melded into other companies who took over the liability for claims.
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