Tags
advocate for fair lending, advocate for fair lending mark shoemaker, damages for loan modification fraud, disbarred attorneys, foreclosure in san diego, fraud, fraudulent loan modification companies, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation case, Judge, Judge Judith F. Hayes, Law Office of Andrew H. Griffin, loan modification companies, loan modification fraud, loan modification scam, loan scams, mark shoemaker, nondischargable, relief from automatic stay, State Bar of California
On August 6, 2008, Castro telephoned AAFL who promised that in exchange for payments of 70% of his mortgage payments that AAFL would perform an “audit of their mortgage to search for and identify legal defects in the mortgage agreement. Once the “defects” in the mortgage were identified, steps, including the initiation of a lawsuit, would be taken to halt foreclosure proceedings and force loan restructured or modification. Castro sent AAFL all of his paperwork regarding the loan and mailed three payments totaling $9,162.66 as instructed. Despite this fact, the foreclosure sale of the property took place on November 3, 2008, and the bank repossessed the home displacing Castro, his family and his pets. No litigation was ever initiated by Shoemaker or AAFL against his lender as promised.
Castro then hired attorney, Andrew H. Griffin, III of the Law Office of Andrew H. Griffin, III to represent him. Griffin filed a complaint against AAFL and Mark Shoemaker in the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego on December 31, 2009. (Case No.: 37-2009-00080288-CU-OR-SC) The case took almost 4 years to complete. During this time Shoemaker filed for Bankruptcy. He lost his license to practice law and he also lost his license as a California real estate broker.
Shoemaker, in spite of being a disbarred attorney, blamed Castro’s problem on Castro, his Lender, and Griffin as Castro’s Attorney. The Court in the State Bar of California found that Shoemaker “used Advocate and his status as an attorney to convince cash-strapped homeowners to pay him thousands of dollars in hopes of saving their homes from foreclosure,” Judge Honn wrote in his May 28, 2010, order Shoemaker, however, “often did little to nothing to help these clients. In fact, many of these homeowners were worse off after retaining [Shoemaker’s] services.”
The State Court trial lasted for 4 days. On September 20, 2013, Judge Judith F. Hayes of the Superior Court found that Shoemaker was liable to Castro for fraud and unlawful business practices under Business and Professions Code section 17200 for his actions in operating AAFL. Judge Hayes opined that the fraud was committed in Shoemaker’s professional capacity as a lawyer and as owner of AAFL. The Court further held that as the owner and sole shareholder of AAFL, and as an attorney, Shoemaker made false statements of material fact to Castro to induce him to pay a total of $9,162.66 for the purpose of stopping the foreclosure sale of their home. Judge Hayes stated that Shoemaker “through his company, AAFL, falsely represented that they had the power to force the lender into a restructure or modification of [Castro’s] mortgage. AAFL’s advertising materials failed to disclose to [Castro] that AAFL had little or no success in this regard”.
Pingback: Victory over Loan Modification Fraud! | Griffinlawblog