NORFOLK
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit in which a couple claimed a home mortgage broker tried to trick them out of their house.
The lawsuit was transferred to federal court after it was filed in Norfolk Circuit Court last year.
Marion and Vivian Johnson had said they sought help from D and D Home Loans when financial troubles caused them to miss payments on their house.
They said D and D President Warren Mike Robinson and an investor named Jason Washington told them the only way to refinance was by signing away the deed to their house and using a private investor to obtain a new loan. Then, they claimed D and D left them with higher payments and, when they fell behind, attempted to evict them from their home.
In a ruling entered Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Friedman said the Johnsons signed contracts to sell the house to Washington without reading the papers or asking questions.
"The record and signed documents unambiguously demonstrate that Washington would purchase the Johnsons' house, pay off the mortgage and then the Johnsons and Washington would enter into a lease/buy-back arrangement," Friedman wrote.
The Johnsons received the proceeds from the sale of their house, Friedman wrote, and were given the option to repurchase it with a down payment and monthly payments. Instead, they stopped paying their lease to Washington, thereby losing their option to buy.
Washington's lawyer, John Lynch, said a key part of the ruling was Friedman's finding that the Johnsons did not have an "equitable mortgage," or a borrower-lender relationship with Washington. The Johnsons owed Washington nothing after the sale of the house and could have walked away without making any further payment, Friedman wrote.
Tanya Bullock, the lawyer who filed the Johnsons' lawsuit, did not return a phone call to her office on Thursday.
Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2287, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com
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