October 13, 2011

An Orange County (Orlando) Florida Judge today denied Wells Fargo’s Motion for Summary Judgment after the borrower filed papers detailing the incomplete nature of discovery and setting forth how WF did not meet its burden for summary judgment, including reference to the transcript of a prior hearing on the same motion where the Judge told WF: “you do not own the note” and that WF would not only have to prove ownership of the Note but the source of authority given to WF to foreclose when it was not the original lender. The homeowner, who originally proceeded pro se, served discovery through her counsel Jeff Barnes, Esq. seeking discovery on the very issues highlighted by the Judge in the prior hearing.

Florida Default Law Group, which represents WF, objected to all of the homeowner’s pro se discovery and failed to ever serve a response to the homeowner’s discovery served by Mr. Barnes, only filing an open-ended Motion for Extension of Time to respond to the discovery some 37 days after the expiration of the 30 days permitted by the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure to serve a response to the discovery.

At today’s hearing, the Judge stated: “The law in Florida is very clear: if discovery is incomplete, there is no summary judment.” WF’s Motion was thus denied, again, as it was at the prior hearing in June of 2010. Despite having 16 months to provide discovery, WF has failed to do so, as it also failed to do in the Iowa case where Mr. Barnes represents the homeowner where WF recently voluntarily dismissed its case just weeks before the trial was scheduled (per prior post on this website of October 4, 2011).

Jeff Barnes, Esq., www.ForeclosureDefenseNationwide.com