Bank to pay $2 million for mistaken foreclosure
NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - A jury in Montana ordered Deutsche Bank and a subsidiary to pay more than $2 million to a couple for foreclosing on their home and selling it. The couple from Billings paid for the home in cash two years earlier. The foreclosure was the result of an error in paperwork.
In 2010, Jason and Liz Norman bought a 120-year-old farmhouse for $50,000. The spent $40,000 on renovations.
Once they were done, they filed for a home equity loan on the property with the plan to use the money to renovate another property and re-sell it.
But the Montana Department of Revenue told the Normans the house had been foreclosed on and sold.
As the couple investigated the case, they discovered an error had been made on a deed for another house but the legal description of the home was of their property.
The jury unanimously awarded the couple compensatory damages totaling $450,000.
On Friday, the jury awarded the punitive damages of $1.6 million.