R.I.P. Rule of Law - The Gormogons

An attention-seeking New York trial court judge decided this week that the rule of law is for suckers. You know, like creditors seeking to recover obligations voluntarily entered into by borrowers.

It seems OneWest, a privately held bank, acquired a mortgage debt from failed bank IndyMac. The debtors, Mr. and Mrs. Horoski, borrowed more than $291,000 in a subprime refi, using a portion to pay off their original mortgage debt, and the remainder to finance Mr. Horoski’s part time gig selling dolls. Really. (Mr. Horoski’s day job is as a professor of English and cognitive reason, seemingly incompatible fields of study).

It appears the judge is upset because OneWest insisted on collecting the full amount of the debt, or liquidating the collateral, as is its right under mortgage documents and, more importantly, New York law. The judge ordered a settlement conference (a new pre-trial statutory requirement in New York), and OneWest refused to settle, insisting on resort to its collateral. The article unhelpfully states that the judge lambasted OneWest for repeatedly refusing to work out a deal, for misleading him about the dollar amounts at stake in the case, and for its treatment of the couple over months of hearings,” without further elucidation. The judge in a fit of pique not only refuses to permit the bank to foreclose, but citing the fact that OneWest received federal bailout cash, discharged the borrowers’ obligation altogether. WTF?!?

So, let’s get this straight. Borrowers borrow money from bank, pledging their house as security for the loan. Borrowers default on the obligation. Bank sued to foreclose its mortgage pursuant to the terms of the voluntary, arms-length transaction between bank and borrowers. There is no dispute the debt has not been paid. There is no dispute that the mortgage is valid. A judge (probably citing the fact that mortgage foreclosure is an equitable proceeding) determined 200 some odd years of settled New York law should be ignored, because the bank is bad and mean and JUST DOESN’T UNDERSTAND AND THE BORROWERS ARE SICK AND ITS A RECESSION AND SUFFOLK COUNTY HAS BEEN SLAMMED AND ANYWAY THE BANK GOT BAILOUT MONEY AND IT’S ALL BUSH’S FAULT!!11!!1! ZOMG!11!

Upsetting creditors’ reasonable expectations that the rule of law will be followed is a one-way ticket to financial Armageddon. No lender is going to put capital at risk if he believes courts will arbitrarily apply the law. Here’s hoping the Appellate Division will right this wrong, reinstate the debt, foreclose the mortgage and discipline Justice Jeffrey Spinner for overstepping his authority.

'Puter

Always right, unless he isn’t, the infallible Ghettoputer F. X. Gormogons claims to be an in-law of the Volgi, although no one really believes this.

’Puter carefully follows economic and financial trends, legal affairs, and serves as the Gormogons’ financial and legal advisor. He successfully defended us against a lawsuit from a liquor distributor worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid deliveries of bootleg shandies.

The Geep has an IQ so high it is untestable and attempts to measure it have resulted in dangerously unstable results as well as injuries to researchers. Coincidentally, he publishes intelligence tests as a side gig.

His sarcasm is so highly developed it borders on the psychic, and he is often able to insult a person even before meeting them. ’Puter enjoys hunting small game with 000 slugs and punt guns, correcting homilies in real time at Mass, and undermining unions. ’Puter likes to wear a hockey mask and carry an axe into public campgrounds, where he bursts into people’s tents and screams. As you might expect, he has been shot several times but remains completely undeterred.

He assures us that his obsessive fawning over news stories involving women teachers sleeping with young students is not Freudian in any way, although he admits something similar once happened to him. Uniquely, ’Puter is unable to speak, read, or write Russian, but he is able to sing it fluently.

Geep joined the order in the mid-1980s. He arrived at the Castle door with dozens of steamer trunks and an inarticulate hissing creature of astonishingly low intelligence he calls “Sleestak.” Ghettoputer appears to make his wishes known to Sleestak, although no one is sure whether this is the result of complex sign language, expert body posture reading, or simply beating Sleestak with a rubber mallet.

‘Puter suggests the Czar suck it.