On August 18, 2015, the Tenth Circuit upheld a Colorado district court’s dismissal of a South Carolina couple’s suit who accused Bank of America NA and others of systematically working to sabotage the Home Affordable Modification Program.
Specifically, the suit alleged that the defendants repeatedly used mail and wire communications to knowingly transmit false information to the plaintiffs as part of a greater scheme to issue as few HAMP loan modifications as possible. Plaintiffs claimed this conduct violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
The district court dismissed the action in part because the court didn’t have jurisdiction over them due to the plaintiffs’ failure to adequately plead a RICO claim and in part because the plaintiffs failed to state a valid statutory or common law claim. The Tenth Circuit affirmed. Specifically, the Court found that plaintiffs “desire for a HAMP modification did not provide them with a protected property interest that they were legally defrauded of under RICO.”
The district court case is Gibbs-Squires v. Urban Settlement Services, et al., case number 1:14-cv-00488, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.