Residents Sue GM Mortgage Unit, Glendale Bank Over Payoff Reports
Orange County residents have filed lawsuits accusing General Motors Acceptance Corp. and Glendale Federal Bank of consistently failing to record critical documents showing that borrowers have paid off their home mortgages.
The suits, filed Monday in Orange County Superior Court, say the lenders for years have violated state law requiring the recording of mortgage reconveyances--public notices that a mortgage loan has been paid off and that the lender no longer has a claim on the property.
The suits also ask the court to approve a class action on behalf of scores of unnamed plaintiffs. They seek unspecified punitive damages, fines of $300 per occurrence, and an order barring future violations.
One suit claims that the GM mortgage unit failed to file a reconveyance when a couple, identified as Charles and Harriett Cohen, refinanced their Seal Beach home in 1993.
The second lawsuit claimed that Glendale Federal failed to file a reconveyance on the couple’s home a year earlier. County resident Mark McGilvray also claimed in the second suit that Glendale Federal failed to file a reconveyance after he refinanced his Irvine home in 1992.
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