Florida Court Finds For Bank In Major Foreclosure Case

From Reuters via Yahoo Finance:

Florida's highest court has ruled a homeowner cannot re-open a voluntarily dismissed foreclosure case despite allegations that the bank falsified documents, giving a win to banks in a closely watched ruling that could have affected thousands of cases in a state hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.

The Florida Supreme Court had been asked to decide whether banks accused of using fraudulent documents to file foreclosure lawsuits could dismiss the cases, and then later re-file them with different paperwork.

... [The homeowner had] asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the documents filed by the bank and its attorneys had been fraudulently backdated. The case stems from the robo-signing scandal, in which banks and law firms allegedly signed off on foreclosure documents without verifying their accuracy.

 

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The case had been closely watched by both banks and homeowners because an unfavorable ruling for the banks could have exposed them to severe financial liability in the state.