A bankruptcy judge who slammed Bank of America Corp. for its treatment of a California couple over a foreclosure declined a request to tear up the scathing opinion, saying that it was important "to name and to shame" the company in order to shed light on practices that affect consumers, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein blasted Bank of America in a ruling in March for its "heartless" conduct against the couple, Erik and Renee Sundquist, and awarded more than $45 million in damages. The bank agreed to pay the Sundquists several million dollars more than the $6 million they won at trial if Judge Klein’s opinion was expunged. “This was a naked effort to coerce this court to erase the record,” Klein wrote in a Thursday opinion. “No chance. No dice.” Although the judge agreed to vacate the damages, he said "trials have consequences" and the litigation is no longer a two-party dispute. Nonprofit consumer advocacy groups and law schools that had intervened in the case on behalf of the public had a "potent point" when they noted that the bank "has shown no remorse, made no apology and promised no reform of the corporate culture practices illustrated by this case," Judge Klein said. Read more.
Read further analysis of Judge Klein’s ruling in today’s Rochelle’s Daily Wire.
