Firm Successfully Defends Trial Court's Denial of Foreclosure in Palm Beach Appeal

It may be a small opinion, but it’s a big win for our Palm Beach County client (who has asked us to sing about her case “far and wide”).

The banks have been trying to foreclose on Cherane Pefley since 2008, after they agreed they miscalculated her monthly payment amount, agreed to correct her payment amount, then refused to accept that same payment amount. Then they foreclosed.

She won on an unclean hands theory in a Palm Beach trial court in 2014. She ended up countersuing her bank, which went bankrupt after paying a $63 million settlement for illegal loan practices, and now she’s a creditor in its bankruptcy proceedings.

Remarkably, after she dismissed her state counterclaims against the bank as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the bank appealed the denial of foreclosure – twelve years after initiating foreclosure proceedings, and six years after losing!

Today, the Fourth DCA rejected the bank’s arguments that (1) there was no evidence to support a modification of the contract and (2) there was no evidence to support a theory of unclean hands, which requires illegal conduct.

We countered that (1) she didn’t need to prove modification, because the new payment amount simply reflected the amount actually owed under the new contract – i.e. there was no default, (2) unclean hands doesn’t require illegal conduct, and (3) a bank can’t foreclose based on its rejection of full payments.

Today, the court issued a per curiam affirmance in her favor. You can see the opinion here.