Judge Slaps Wells Fargo in Foreclosure

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - A woman can stay in her home, for now, after a federal judge granted her a temporary restraining order preventing Wells Fargo from proceeding with a foreclosure. Keng Hee Paik said the bank had not provided her "with 'any documents whatsoever'" when she took out a $750,000 home loan.

Paik said she "'performed dutifully under the loans until 2010'" when her income was drastically reduced, and that Wells Fargo never notified of her of her rights or provided a notice of default before it initiated foreclosure proceedings.

"On the current record it appears likely that - at the least - defendants did not comply with their legal obligations attending contacting plaintiff prior to entry of notice of default, and that failure must be cured before any foreclosure sale can proceed," wrote U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who found Paik would likely suffer irreparable harm if the foreclosure proceeds.

"And, importantly, plaintiff is entitled to her day in court to vindicate her right to statutorily required notice," Alsup wrote.

"This would not be the first time that a bank shirked its legal responsibilities to aid a struggling borrower trying to pay back her loan. It is in the public interest to allow such borrowers a full and fair opportunity to show that they were not given all the benefits that the law afforded when they make a preliminary showing that something was amiss."

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