Woman Gains 2-Week Stay on Foreclosure of Home

A federal judge Tuesday agreed with Janet F. McKinzie’s contention that she is caught between a rock and a hard place as federal regulatory agencies chase her assets. He gave the Newport Beach businesswoman 14 days to come up with a way to save her $1.2-million home from a foreclosure sale.

The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., which has accused McKinzie of helping defraud North America Savings & Loan Assn. in Santa Ana of $43 million, has obtained a court order freezing her assets. But because she had no equity in the house, U.S. Dist. Judge Harry Hupp decided Monday to return it to her control.

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board, however, refused to allow the S&L; that holds the $975,000 mortgage on the house to extend the already-postponed foreclosure sale, which was scheduled for Tuesday morning.

The FSLIC is an arm of the bank board. Hupp, who suggested Monday that separate arms of the same regulatory agency might be putting a unfair squeeze on McKinzie, decided Tuesday to give her two weeks to sell the house on her own or come up with the more than $94,000 due in principal, interest and foreclosure costs.

To get that two-week reprieve, though, she must pay two weeks worth of interest--$3,295.88--within two days.

McKinzie was the business manager and confidante of Duane Christensen, who owned North America and was killed in a car accident just hours before regulators seized the thrift.