Minutes before a foreclosure sale a 68-year-old Orange County woman is given a second chance - a chance not many property owners get. With the housing market still down, foreclosures escalating and unemployment rates rising; statistics still show that those who face foreclosures don't get a chance to see the light in this dark economy. 68-year-old Shirley Jobe became an exception.
Jobe, a retiree with minimal income, was given twenty loans by Defendant Abex Mortgage Company involving eight different pieces of property she had accumulated throughout her life. She paid $800,000 in loans fees over four years. Her attorney Douglas J. Pettibone of The Law Office of Douglas J. Pettibone claims defendants manipulated and influenced Jobe causing her to refinance the properties over and over for the primary purpose of generating loan fees. With insufficient income to qualify for these loans, Jobe had fallen victim to alleged predatory lending practices.
"When Mrs. Jobe came to me she had 72 hours before her property was to be sold," Pettibone says, "I saw some clear violations of lending practices and I believe she was taken advantage of and the court eventually agreed with me".
Pettibone asked the court for an emergency order to stop the sale of Jobe's property. "Jobe knew what she was getting into from the beginning," representatives from Abex told the court, "Further [Abex] was the victim not Jobe". Pettibone claims defendants knew she wasn't able to pay off the loans giving them the opportunity to take her properties. The court agreed with Pettibone (Jobe v. Abex Mortgage Case No: CIVDS900081-San Bernardino Superior Court).
On the day of the sale the court granted Pettibone's request. Within minutes of the sale taking place Pettibone hand delivered a certified copy of the court's order to the sheriff effectively stopping the sale.
"We have taken all their leverage away", Pettibone says, who has tried in excess of 80 cases; "The case will settle…however it will settle on our terms - not theirs."
For now Jobe remains in the property.
Pettibone who runs his practice out of Irvine, California specializes primarily in business and real estate litigation and has devoted a portion of his practice to protection of predatory lending.
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