Farm Family Awarded $50 Million in Bank Suit

The Bank of America must pay a Sutter County family $50 million in damages for mishandling loans, a jury decided Friday.

The bank was ordered to pay the Stanghellini family of Knights Landing $20 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages for acting fraudulently.

“Oh, man, it feels great,” Robert Stanghellini told the Sacramento Bee after the jury delivered its verdict.

Stanghellini said the bank had threatened to foreclose on his row-crop farm, but that the decision will allow him to stay on his land.

But Chester Morris, who represented the Bank of America during the seven-week trial, said the bank plans to appeal the decision.

“We completely disagreed with the fact that this case was allowed to go to the jury, based on the evidence,” he told The Bee. “There were a lot of unfortunate circumstances the family had, but they weren’t the fault of the bank.”

The Stanghellinis alleged that the bank urged them to borrow millions of dollars to expand their farm operation. In the early 1980s, the farm lost vast sums of money on tomato crops, and the bank allegedly assumed management of the operation.

Promised Operating Loans

The Stanghellinis said about two years ago, the bank promised them operating loans for the next growing season if they would put up additional security.

Robert Stanghellini’s mother, Elide Stanghellini, and his aunt, Angelina Fava, put up $800,000, but the bank cut off their credit and threatened to foreclose.

The $50 million in damages awarded by the jury include $19 million for each of the women, who are in their mid-80s.

The case is the second in two weeks in which farmers have won large sums of money from banks.

Last week, a Monterey County jury found Wells Fargo Bank guilty of fraud, breach of contract and bad faith in handling multimillion dollar loans to Castroville farmer Garth Conlan. Jurors awarded Conlan $10 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages.

The bank said it will appeal.