A U.S. appeals court ruled that Wells Fargo & Co. must face lawsuits by home loan borrowers over claims the bank refused to offer them permanent mortgage modifications for which they assert they qualified, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The federal government’s 2009 Home Affordable Modification Program requires the bank to offer permanent adjustments to homeowners who met the terms of a trial-period modification, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled. Reversing a lower-court dismissal of two separate lawsuits, the panel rejected the conclusion Wells Fargo was only bound if it had actually offered the borrowers a fully-executed copy of a modification agreement. The terms of the trial period plan “cannot convert a purported agreement setting forth clear obligations into a decision left to the unfettered discretion of the loan servicer,” the panel said.
