JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, and Wells Fargo & Co must face claims over home foreclosure practices in a lawsuit brought by the Massachusetts attorney general, a judge ruled.
Allegations that the banks violated state law by conducting invalid foreclosures can proceed, according to a decision by judge Judith Fabricant of Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston dated November 30.
Invalid foreclosures resulting in properties with clouded titles might have caused harm to third-party purchasers “and the real estate market as a whole, and thereby to the public,” Fabricant wrote.
The three banks along with Bank of America Corp. and Ally Financial Inc’s GMAC Mortgage were sued last year by Attorney General Martha Coakley. Coakley accused the lenders of using fraudulent documents in home foreclosures, foreclosing without legal authority, undermining public land records and misrepresenting loan-modification programmes.