Rancho Cucamonga,
Ca.
Couple Awarded $1 Million For Bad Credit Reporting
With spotless credit, Reed and Mary Ann Fisher had always paid their mortgage on
time, but a two-year nightmare began when Wells Fargo started to falsely report
them as delinquent.
Even after the mortgage was transferred to Freddie Mac, the original lender did
not clean up the credit report as they had told the couple, but rather went on
reporting them to the credit agencies and even began foreclosure proceedings on
the property to which they had no claim.
In the spring of 2001, the Fishers had their home in San Clemente, California
red-tagged because of land instability.
They promptly contacted their mortgage servicer, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and
obtained a forbearance agreement on their mortgage payments while their home was
red-tagged.
Wells Fargo later transferred the mortgage to Freddie Mac, which charged off the
loan with a zero balance and no negative credit marks.
The problems for the Fishers had only begun, though.
Although the company no longer serviced the loan, Wells Fargo continued to
report to the credit bureaus that the Fishers were delinquent on their mortgage
payments.
Eventually, Wells Fargo began foreclosure proceedings on the Fisher's home.
Although the problems with Wells Fargo proved a burden unto itself, the Fishers
found that they had become financially paralyzed because of the damage to their
credit scores from the negative entries.
While the Des Moines, Iowa-based mortgage unit sent letters to the couple
stating that the credit information was being cleaned up, the company continued
to report the negative credit information to the credit bureaus.
After two years of struggle, the Fishers filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo to
halt the credit reporting.
On March 6, a Rancho Cucamonga jury awarded the couple a judgment against Wells
Fargo for $765,000 in actual and punitive damages.
In August, the court added $283,594.45 in fees and costs in compliance with the
Fair Credit Reporting Act, which allows consumers to recover their attorney's
fees and costs with a favourable verdict.
"The Fishers tried for two years to clean up their credit by themselves, only to
have the door slammed in their faces repeatedly,” said their attorney Robert F.
Brennan.
"So often in these cases, you see an attitude that big banks like Wells Fargo
believe that a consumer's credit information belongs to the bank. It does not.
If nothing else, I hope Wells Fargo learns from this verdict that a consumer's
credit information belongs to the consumer, and a bank has a sacred trust to
protect it from wrongful damage."
Wells Fargo maintains that their mortgage unit had been servicing the loan at
the time when the negative report was filed.
An appeal filed by the company remains pending.
The total sum awarded to the Fishers after the two-year ordeal was $1,045,594.
"I know that there have been a handful of judgments over $1 million in
California for false credit reporting, but probably not enough,” said Brennan.
“The credit reporting industry needs to get the message that false credit
reporting can ruin a consumer's life and that extra precautions need to be taken
to prevent false credit reporting, and to promptly fix it when it does occur."
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