Bank of America Illegal Trash Out On Front Page of New York Times

The New York Times featured our client Mimi Ash's illegal lock out and trash out case against Bank of America in an article entitled "In a Sign of Foreclosure Flaws, Suits Claim Break-Ins by Banks."  The article discusses Ms. Ash's story of how Bank of America's servicing entity BAC ordered the lock out and trash out of Ms. Ash's California home.  As recounted in the Complaint filed in federal court in California, BAC's ordered contractors to break into Ms. Ash's home and empty the entire contents of her house.  Irreplaceable family pictures and possessions were lost in the trash out of Ms. Ash's house, including her deceased husband's ashes.

The story also highlights a second Phillips & Garcia case filed in Washington.  Washington resident Celeste Butler's father's house was broken into by contractors hired by JP Morgan Chase while her father was being treated in the hospital, where he eventually passed away.  When Ms. Butler visited the house it had been broken into, ransacked and possessions had been taken.

In February of this year, our office also filed Cardoso v. Bank of America in federal court in Massachusetts, one of the first illegal lock-out and trash-out cases in the country.  In Cardoso, BAC ordered contractors to break into the Cardoso's second home in Florida and throw out many of their possessions, even though the Cardosos had no loan with Bank of America and had no mortgage on the house.  BAC had the wrong house.  It was supposed to foreclose on a house approximately 10 house lots away.

The stories of these homeowners are not the exception to the rule. We are hearing numerous complaints about illegal lock outs and trash outs.  You can also assume that there are scores of homeowners who are in foreclosure but have not yet been legally evicted whose houses are seized and possessions discarded.  These homeowners often have no resources to fight the banks and their servicers.  Their last bit of dignity is taken and their memories end up in a landfill.