DiGennaro and Belous Prevail on Summary Judgment Motion

Janice DiGennaro and Todd Belous were successful on a motion for summary judgment granted in favor of our client, an attorney, who was accused of having knowledge of and participating in a fraudulent loan transaction.

Imposters, claiming to own real estate, successfully defrauded a lender of $350,000.  The title company of the lender reimbursed the lender and then brought suit against the lender’s attorney (not our client) claiming  that he should have discovered the fraud as the funds were wired by that attorney to a Swiss bank account after the closing.  That attorney brought a third-party action against the mortgage broker and our client who was retained by the imposters just hours before the closing to appear with them at the closing to review the loan documents which had already been approved.  We argued in our motion that the imposters’ retention of our client just hours before the closing and under false pretenses established that he had no knowledge of and did not participate in the fraud.  The Court agreed and dismissed our client from the case.  However, the dispositive motion of the lender’s attorney and mortgage broker were denied and the litigation is scheduled for trial.  The damages now sought, with interest, are approximately $1 million.