Homeowner gets foreclosure reprieve

Tyree Brown, the homeowner who complained that Wells Fargo Bank blindsided him with a foreclosure during loan modification negotiations, has won the first round in court.

District Court Judge Douglas Smith signed a preliminary injunction Wednesday, temporarily preventing the buyer from evicting Brown, his two sons and his fiancée from their northwest Las Vegas home.

JFS Management Group, which made the winning bid on the home at a February foreclosure sale, won't be allowed to take over the house at 1840 Spring Summit Lane and "flip it" for a profit while the case is pending.

Brown and the buyer must negotiate a monthly payment amount or Smith will set the payment amount for them.

The case is unusual because Brown comes from a prominent family. His father, Joe Brown, president of law firm Jones Vargas, sat on the state community board at Wells Fargo Bank and was friends with Wells Fargo's regional President Kirk Clausen.

Brown's father testified that he told Wells Fargo that he would personally pay off the $143,000 owed on the mortgage plus costs, if necessary, to avoid foreclosure.

In other ways, however, Tyree Brown's story is just another variation of a story playing out in thousands of homes around the state. Nevada's foreclosure rate is the highest in the country and five times the average nationally, according to RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif.

One in every 79 houses in the Silver State received a foreclosure notice in May despite a 16 percent decrease from the same month last year.

Real estate lawyer Tisha Black Chernine, a partner in the firm Black & Lobello, counts more than 400 clients who have sought advice to avoid foreclosure. It's common, she said, for mortgage specialists to fail to communicate with each other on different aspects of the same delinquent mortgage case.

"It's absolutely astonishing there's the failure of communication that the banks have from the right hand to the left hand," Black Chernine said.

Wells Fargo spokeswoman Natalie Brown sent an e-mail, repeating the bank's earlier statement on the lawsuit: "We worked for months to find a workable solution to help our customer. The actions we took were both mindful of his personal circumstances and consistent with state law."

Tyree Brown's problems started in December 2008 when he was laid off from a job as a casino equipment salesman.

He stopped paying his mortgage the following month, and Wells Fargo approved a 90-day moratorium on mortgage payments.

He tried to negotiate a mortgage-loan modification, but mortgage specialist Linda Parker of Des Moines, Iowa, told him to contact her when he found work.

Tyree Brown found another job, but it paid less than his old one. In October 2009, Tyree Brown signed an agreement calling for three monthly payments of $645 followed by a $18,000 balloon payment in January 2010.

Meanwhile, four different Wells Fargo mortgage specialists from around the country called the Browns about potential foreclosure, but Parker told the Browns to ignore those calls.

He made the first three payments but Parker didn't return the Browns' repeated calls about modification in December, according to testimony.

During a court hearing, Parker explained that she was "out of the picture at that point" although she acknowledged that she didn't advise the Browns that she was no longer handling their case.

Asked how the homeowner could have known she was off the case, Parker testified: "Well, sir, I have no idea. I have no answer to that question."

After Joe Brown complained to the bank's community board about Wells Fargo's handling of the mortgage modification negotiations, another loan specialist, Matthew Heil, was assigned to the case.

Tyree Brown started providing information to Heil in hopes of getting a loan modification. As they were filing documents for the modification, Heil learned the bank had foreclosed.

Wells Fargo attorney Cynthia Alexander acknowledged the situation was unfortunate.

"There was a loss of a job. There's a recession going on out there, and there were problems with getting another job," Alexander contended. "Those circumstances don't alleviate (the Browns) from their obligations to pay their mortgage, and there was no payments made."

But in siding with the homeowner, Smith said in his order, "Wells Fargo wrongfully interfered with the foreclosure process and (Tyree Brown's) right to appear at the foreclosure sale and potentially cure the default or pay off the entire remaining balance."

The judge said Tyree Brown was likely to win his lawsuit based on the merits of his claims.

Tyree Brown was laid off as a salesman at his new job because he lacked seniority. However, Joe Brown said he will pay off the mortgage if his son prevails in court.

"I've got two grandchildren that I don't want thrown out," he said.

Tyree Brown's attorney Thomas Grace estimated that the case could be ready for a jury trial in two years.

Contact reporter John G. Edwards
at jedwards@reviewjournal.com
or 702-383-0420.