The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday agreed to decide whether Miami can pursue lawsuits accusing major banks of predatory mortgage lending to black and Hispanic home buyers resulting in loan defaults that drove down city tax revenues and property values, Reuters reported. The justices will hear appeals filed by Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. of a lower court's decision to permit the lawsuits by the Florida city against the banks. They were filed under the Fair Housing Act, a federal law outlawing discrimination in housing. Last September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit overturned a lower court's decision to dismiss such lawsuits by the city against Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup Inc. Citigroup decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court. Miami accused the banks of a decade of lending discrimination in its residential housing market. The city accused Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup of steering non-white borrowers into higher-cost loans they often could not afford, even if they had good credit.
