Herb and Christine Will with the attorney Amber Litchfield (center) at the Kent County Court House on June 7
The attorney representing Herb and Christine Will, owners of Herb’s Soup and Such, alleges that Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank filed a forged loan document in Kent County District Court on May 12 — in an effort to enforce a confessed judgment against the Wills, which would lead to foreclosure and sale of the couple’s home and business.
Speaking in front of the Kent County Court House on June 7, the couple’s attorney, Amber K. Litchfield, said she was filing a motion to strike down the judgment because of the unlawful use of a confessed judgment against a primary residence — and because the confessed judgment also contains a forgery of Herb Will’s signature.
“We are here today because the Wills were recently issued a confessed judgment that affects a loan on their primary residence,” Litchfield said. [The Wills] stand to lose their home, and the [judgment] had a cross-default position, which caused other loans the Wills had with their business to go into default as well. The plaintiff, PNC, has managed to get a confessed judgment on all four notes and everything the Wills own.”
Litchfield also said the promissory note with the confessed judgment clause is forged.
“We believe that the promissory note PNC is relying on here today is a forged document,” Litchfield said. “Herb did not sign the document, [and] he has never seen the document until the last few weeks.”
Christine Will did sign the document at the High Street Branch in May 2010 because she believed it was only a loan rate review. She was not aware of the confessed judgment clause within the document.
“At the time we were still working as though it was a rate review,” Christine said outside the Court House. “Quite naively, I did sign the paperwork — not knowing it was anything other than [a rate review].”
Herb insisted that he never saw the document prior to a few weeks ago. He also insisted that certain things in the document would have raised a red flag if he had reviewed it.
“The note has a three-month maturity, and it refers to Kent and Queen Anne’s County, Virginia as where the properties are,” Herb said. “I wouldn’t have signed a three-month [balloon] loan given the amount of the money involved.”
Litchfield said that PNC would eventually have to produce the original documents with the original signatures. Litchfield is also confident the Wills’ case will go to a jury trial.
A confession of judgment is common and legally allowed in Maryland for commercial lending. A confessed judgment is signed by the borrower at time of loan origination or modification, and it allows a lender to secure a judgment without warning the borrower. If the borrower defaults, the lender simply files the confessed judgment in the court of jurisdiction to attach the borrower’s property and other assets.
Confessed judgments have long been prohibited in home mortgages in Maryland under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act; they eliminate the due process rights afforded homeowners in seeking remedies to avoid foreclosure.
PNC Spokesman Fred Soloman said he could not speak to Wills’ case now that it was in litigation, but he did say the legal department would be looking into the matter of the alleged forgery.
The Wills have an excellent payment history since their loans were first originated with the former Mercantile Eastern Shore Bank in 2005. PNC bought Mercantile in 2007 and took over servicing the Wills’ loans. PNC told the Wills they decided to call in the full amount of couple’s loans in October of 2010 — because the Wills’ primary home had lost value in the depressed real estate market.
The Wills continue to maintain their loans and make their monthly payments on time.
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