Shuster & Saben reaches confidential settlement in Foreclosure Trespass case.

Nearly four years ago a Melbourne, Florida resident in foreclosure left town for the weekend.  Although her home was in foreclosure she continued to live there and run her home based business from the property.  When she arrived home after the weekend away, the lock on her front door had been changed.  A field service agent sent by her loan servicer had broke in the back door, changed the lock on her front door, and left his business card.  When she found her front door locked she went around to the back of the house where she found her broken in back door left wide open.  When she went inside she found that many of her possessions were gone.

The homeowner called the police and a police report was filed.  The police did not arrest anyone and told her that because she was in foreclosure this was a “civil” matter.  Our client did not know if the field service agent took her belongings or merely enabled some other person to take her stuff by leaving the back door unlocked.

The home owner took pictures of her home after the break-in to show that the property was in good repair and could not have been mistaken for an abandoned property.  She asked several different lawyers in the Space Coast to take her case.  Every attorney she spoke to told her the same thing:  that her damages (about $6,000.00 of lost property) were to small and she had no proof that the field service agent left the back door open or took her property.   One lawyer told her “Perhaps the field service agent broke into the property, changed the locks, and locked all the doors and then a thief broke in and left the back door open.”

Shuster & Saben Defeats Nationstar Mortgage in Vero Beach Foreclosure Case and Recovers Attorney’s Fees.

 

Things did not look good for a Vero Beach resident when he drove to Melbourne to hire Shuster & Saben to defend his home.  Before Shuster & Saben was hired Nationstar had already obtained summary judgment against the homeowner.  All that was left in the case was for the Indian River Circuit Court to conduct a foreclosure sale which was scheduled to take a place about a month after the firm was hired.  When Shuster & Saben was first hired Nationstar was so confident in their position that they rejected a request made by attorney Shuster for a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure settlement.

After the firm was hired, Shuster & Saben moved to set the summary judgment aside based on promises made to the homeowner that his loan would be modified.  Before the hearing on the motion to cancel sale and vacate summary judgment took place, Nationstar’s original counsel Ben-Ezra Katz, P.A., withdrew the affidavit that had previously been filed in support of Nationstar’s motion for summary judgment.  Shortly thereafter Nationstar, Fannie Mae and numerous other lenders discharged the Ben-Ezra firmunder suspicious circumstances. 

Firm attorney Richard Shuster argued that if the affidavit used in support of summary judgment was withdrawn and was possibly fraudulent the Court should vacate the summary judgment previously entered against our client.  The Court agreed, canceled the foreclosure sale and vacated the summary judgment against our client.