Cover letter Page
For the ......"
TheOutlawLenders.com "...... website.
RECENT LETTER TO "ATTORNEYS" FOR WELLS FARGO
Dated 09/08/2009
Via Fax (212) 918-3100
& U.S. Mail
September 8, 2009
Scott E. Webster and
Jean Allen Webster
Plaintiffs, pro se
204 Charlotte Drive
Dugspur, VA 24325
(276) 728-5006
CRI@SWVA.net
Re: Scott E. Webster and Jean Allen Webster
pro se, v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. et al.
Index No.: 08 CIV 10145 (LAP)
Re: Telephone conversation 09/04/09
Katie Lachtor, Esq.
Allison Schoenthal, Esq.
Hogan & Hartson
875 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Attorneys for Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
(212) 918-3647 office (212) 918-3000
(212) 918-3100 fax
Dear Katie:
This letter is in response to our telephone conversation on Friday,
September 4, 2009. You called us to discuss our Notices of Default
and Demand for an Answer that were sent to the four defaulting
Defendants.
My understanding is that your call was in reference to your firm's
stated intention of submitting a motion to the Federal Court to
dismiss the Summons and Verified Amended Complaint against Wells
Fargo and Richard M. Kovacevich for our lack of proper service. It
appears that your call was in direct response to our Notices of
Default and Demand for an Answer for which we had sent you a copy.
During our conversation you stated that you had not seen listed with
the Court record, the individual return of the service papers, and
that the Court's computer was not running that morning. After that
call I also contacted the pro se office and also could not confirm
because of the computer outage.
Today, Tuesday, I again checked with the pro se office and the
original returns had not been logged into the system as they should
have been, even though the pro se office stamped our copies on July
30, 2009, of those original returns we submitted. At this time the
pro se office is locating the fifteen (15) returns and will be
entering them into the system.
In our conversation Friday, I told you that I would send you copies
of the returns for the defaulting Wells Fargo entities, however we
have decided to withold them until the pro se office enters them
into the system. Experience has taught us to be careful of
unnecessary exposure of documents that could be used against us,
even if only in timing. In this case we would not want you moving
the court for dismissal using our copies until the Court system has
page 2/5
been updated. This is especailly true where we would need a clerk's
certification that process has been completed. We hope you will
understand.
For the record, you (your firm), to the best of our knowledge has
been receiving full copies of all Court submitted papers, not only
by us, but all papers submitted from the other defendants who have
appeared to date.
The only reason that your firm has been getting these papers, is
that Laura Shrewsburry had included Allison Schoenthal, Esq. of
Hogan and Hartson on her mailing list. Also receiving all papers
sybmitted as noted above is John Grisson, Esq. of "Wells Fargo Law
Department" in Des Moines, also introduced into the equation as
"Attorneys for Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and Richard M. Kovacevich,
CEO". We question why Mr. Grisson has not contacted us regarding
Kovacevich as he is referred to in the Shrewsburry list as
representing Kovacevich.
Neither of the firms have appeared on behalf of any entity or agent
of Wells Fargo, nor did we find anything on the internet or
elsewhere indicating "attorneys of record" or for any kind of
contact whatsoever. Why, and for what reason Laura decided to
include these firms is beyond us, however to protect ourselves, we
sent all copies of our paperwork as a precaution.
We don't believe that there is any legal basis, at this time, for
your firms being privy to the prior litigation. We would argue
however, that there was certainly some kind of service of the notice
of the Complaint by Laura Shrewsberry by initially serving her
moving papers, which included the Complaint, to both your firm and
that of Mr. Grisson.
We should note, again for the record, that we have received nothing
to indicate whether your firm or Mr. Grisson is representing any of
the parties on the suit. We have received no letter with heading
from the firms, only Laura's "cc" with her intial moving papers.
Given our past experience with Wells Fargo and their attorneys for
the foreclosure, this presents a dicey situation where information
given even in a simple matter could be used against us at a later
time.
During our conversation on Friday, I stated several times that we
fully believe that our services against those listed on the Notice
and Demand, were proper, and can be sustained in securing either
default judgements, or in the alternative to have the named
defaulted defendants to be ordered to answer the Complaint. While
we can appreciate your assertion that the Court could not or would
not order a defendant to answer a complaint, we choose to differ, as
it was done many years ago in World's Fair Marina Boatowners
Association, Scott Webster, et al, v. NYC Department of Parks, as
petitioners in an Article 78 where the Judge ordered the City to
answer the Petition.
You have asserted to us that Wells Fargo is a client of Hogan and
Hartson, and that apparently you, on belhaf of Wells Fargo would be
"willing" to accept service of our Amended Verified Complaint if we
would be willing to drop Defendant Richard M. Kovacevich. This was
an offer you had made to us by you on a phone conversation on or
about May 5th or 6th, 2009. This was a conditional offer which we
page 3/5
decided was not necessary, as during that conversation I responded
that service was being done on the Baum Law Firm, the firm who
initiated the foreclosure action against us.
When you challenged whether they were a law firm representing Wells
Fargo, I stated that we had a "plethora" of documents that were
outside of the litigation, and that the firm had been representing
Wells Fargo to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as
Wells Fargo's attorney. That and other matters. We are also aware
that NYS law allows service on an attorney for separate actions,
where the parties have been engaged in similiar issues or actions of
a somewhat common nature. Of course, this is a matter for the Court
to decide and rule upon.
To cover our bases, we then had the corporate office of Wells
Fargo,that consistly listed as the official national headquarters
wherever one looks, served in San Francisco with professional
process servicers whom assured me that they have served many suits
against Wells Fargo for out-of-state litigation, even in outside
Federal action. We think this service will easily withstand any
challenge, of course, this is a matter for the Court to decide and
rule upon.
Still to cover our bases, we then went to the trouble and expense to
have the defaulting Wells Fargo entities served and the Ft. Mill, SC
location, the ones that initiated the foreclosure action against
us. While we can understand your questioning whether that service
was effective, as I stated in our conversation, if the initiating
party in a law suit can't be served, then perhaps Wells Fargo, at
that location lacked standing ab initio to bring the foreclosure
suit. Again, we think this service will easily withstand any
challenge, but again, of course, this is a matter for the Court to
decide and rule upon.
It appears from our Friday conversation that there was some thought
by your firm of moving for dismissal for lack of service, and that
the 120 day time limit has expired, and that this would be an easy
way for Wells Fargo to avoid the scrutiny of the serious issues
raised in the Complaint.
As Rule 4 (m) states regarding the time limit to complete service:
"If a defendant is not served within 120 days after
the complaint is filed, the court - on motion or on
its own after notice to the plaintiff - must dismiss
the action without prejudice against that defendant or
order that service may be made within a specified
time."
However, Rule 4 (m) further states and concludes regarding the time
limit to complete service:
"But if the plaintiff shows good cause for the
failure, the court MUST EXTEND THE TIME FOR SERVICE
for an appropriate period." (emphasis added)
Should your firm decide to move the court to dismiss for failure to
serve the defaulting defendants before we can resolve these service
matter, our then submission of the returns, the invoices, letters
involving the Baum firms representing Wells Fargo as their attorneys
page 4/5
outside the direct litigation, the court, at its worst ruling
against us would dismiss the Amended Complaint against them "without
prejudice" wherein we would then refile the action against them, or
most likely in the alternative issue amended summons to be served
against the defaulters.
Hence, a dismissal motion at this time would gain nothing for you
except the unnecessary involvement of the court. We would also
request a pre-motion conference as required by the Practices of
Magistrate Judge Maas (paragraph 2 (A)), although they request the
moving party to submit the request, which we would answer, probably,
with a copy of this letter.
Our insistance that Mr. Kovacevich be kept on as a defendant is
partially that his removal would possibly open the door for some, or
all, of the defendants to move to strike out critical paragraphs of
the Complaint as unsustainable without the joining of a critical
party. Also is the fact that we have asserted that Mr. Kovacevich
has created what we have alleged as a criminal enterprise (see
paragraphs 205, 228, 256, 257 of the Complaint) and that as the
officer and head of that enterprise he is fully accountable. Like
Bernie Madoff, or Ken Lay, or even I as an officer of our business.
What strikes us as absolutely incredible, is your statement that
you, or your firm has not seen any of the eight (8) individual
services enacted at the above stated addresses. Surely at least one
should have been forwarded to you or your firm. We realize that
probably you were not actually handed a served copy, but, if what
you say is true that your firm is the "attorney of record" that not
one of the eight sets of papers were sent on to the firm.
Even so, as your firm has been getting all the litigation papers,
including letters to the court of the defaulters, we wonder why
someone from your firm did not bother to call your client Wells
Fargo to inquire as to where any of these eight services ended up.
We believe this failure to investigate these papers on behalf of a
client, could possibly border on malpractice, but then, who are we
to say.
The failure of Wells Fargo to pass on any information is clearly a
pattern of behavior employed, with the knowledge of Mr. Kovacevich,
to discourage clients. On 10/05/07 we sent a 20+ page, single
spaced 105 paragraph letter citing serious problems including legal
wrongdoings by Wells Fargo, to Senator Dodd with a copy to Mr.
Kovacevich. Mr Kovacevich was put on notice, and as usual Wells
Fargo's policy of non-communication continued, and continues as was
shown in the recent New York Times Article regarding Bobbi Giguere
before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Haines and how Wells Fargo
ignored her requests for loan modification. Rest assurred your firm
knows fully about this story which broke over the weekend.
Ironically, Ms. Giguere just returned my call to help her as I was
constructing the above paragraph.
This pattern of arrogance, in complete opposition to Wells Fargo's
carefully constructed web site, touting company philosophies advance
and/or approved by Chairman (formerly CEO) Kovacevich, has been
damaging many helpless borrowers in this country and it is a
complete abrogation of the lending laws long established in this
country, and sorely needs to be addressed in a court of law, by a
jury. We owe that much to our fellow citizens which is why we
page 5/5
created TheOutlawLenders.com website.
While I indicated to you that we find it hard to believe that after
all the litigation, much involving Wells Fargo's admissions and
documents, especially as we recently found that there had been an
illegal, no, no transfer of the original mortgage to them in the
first place, that they lacked standing ab initio and as I stated
that jurisdiction can be challenged at any time, after decisions and
even "final" judgements have been rendered, and that even from a
casual reading of our complaint by anyone at Wells Fargo, including
the Baum Law Firm in the foreclosure action, that nobody even
attempted to call and offer any kind of settlement. Arrogance, not
logic nor fairness, is the guiding light.
We wish to state for the record that we have no first hand knowledge
that your firm is actually the "attorney of record" in this matter,
as no appearance put in for these defendants or anyone else at Wells
Fargo. While we realize that your firm might be the attorney of
record for several of the recent Federal Law Suits, such as the one
just filed as a RICO action, which is something we had initially
thought about doing.
I also mentioned that we should be researching the piercing the
corporate veil regarding Norwest Corporation, the holding/hedgefund
entity that took over Wells Fargo and took on the name and icon from
that 150+ year old company that many borrowers had come to rely upon
for fairness, honor, and responsibility. However, Mr. Kovacevich
eliminated such honorable corporate qualities in 1998 when he stated
to some employees of the original Wells Fargo company who as quoted:
". . .just didn't agree with the path Kovacevich and his team was
taking": "We'd just say, "fine, then you should leave'" Kovacevich
said." He clearly changed the company, created and was/is
responsible for what that entity has become, and is answerable for
those changes, slogans, website, assurances, and actions.
Regarding the issue of service that you stated would need to be
resolved before any discussion of any kind of settlement takes
place, we propose that we complete our motion to hold the four (4)
defaulted defendants for the relief we will be seeking, and that we
send our full moving papers, including copies of the returns of the
service affidavits/affirmations to you for your response, with the
understanding that we both try to resolve the service issues before
either of us has to actually move and involve the court.
I, Scott, will try to reach you in the next day or so to see if the
above proposal would work for your firm.
Thank you for your call, hopefully understanding, and continued
communication.
via U.S. Mail
cc: John Grisson, Esq. _________________
Wells Fargo Law Dept Scott E. Webster
MAC X2401-06T Plaintiff, pro se
One Home Campus
Des Moines, IA 50328 _________________
Attorneys for Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Jean Allen Webster
and Richard M. Kovacevich, CEO Plaintiff, pro se
Copyright © 2009 by WebstersWebsites (tm) all rights reserved.