On January 13, 2017 the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against KleinBank alleging that the bank engaged in unlawful “redlining” of majority-minority neighborhoods in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, alleges that KleinBank violated the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibit financial institutions from discriminating on the basis of race and color in their mortgage lending practices. The complaint […]
Category: Fair Housing
SET-BACK FOR MUNICIPALITIES
The on-going saga of cities suing banks for Fair Housing damages continues. This time there is a significant victory for the banks. On May 26, 2017 in two separate decisions the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed district court rulings that struck a blow to City of Los Angeles suits claiming Wells Fargo and Bank of America violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against Latino and black borrowers. Citing the Supreme […]
UPDATE ON BOA DISCRIMINATION CASE
On January 15, 2017 we penned an article entitled Worth Watching – BOA Discrimination Case. The article reviewed what appeared to be fairly egregious ethnicity discrimination practices engaged in by a few Bank of America employees in the Charleston, SC market. The article concluded with the following questions: Will BOA settle? If the case makes it to court how will the court rule when the victims are testers and will any significant damages be awarded? […]
MUNICIPALITY CASES UPDATE
On May 6, 2017 we reported the Supreme Court’s 5 – 3 decision that cities have standing to sue banks for damages under the Fair Housing Act. We wondered, ” Will we see more of these actions? Most likely.” Well we have another case, and much sooner than expected. The City of Philadelphia filed suit against Wells Fargo on May 15th. We expect the list of cities filing cases to grow steadily. If any city […]
FAIR HOUSING CLAIMS BY MUNICIPALITIES
On May 1, 2017 the Supreme Court (in a 5 – 3 decision, with Justice Gorsuch abstaining) ruled in the case of Bank of America v. City of Miami that municipalities have standing to file a civil damages action for a violation of the Fair Housing Act. The City’s complaints charge that the Banks intentionally targeted predatory practices at African-American and Latino neighborhoods and residents, lending to minority borrowers on worse terms than equally creditworthy […]