In The Blogs

Quote of the Day

| Thu Oct. 29, 2009 12:18 PM PDT

From Fay Chapman, former chief legal officer at Washington Mutual, about loan standards during the housing bubble era:

"Someone in Florida had made a second-mortgage loan to O.J. Simpson, and I just about blew my top, because there was this huge judgment against him from his wife's parents," she recalled. Simpson had been acquitted of killing his wife Nicole and her friend but was later found liable for their deaths in a civil lawsuit; that judgment took precedence over other debts, such as if Simpson defaulted on his WaMu loan.

"When I asked how we could possibly foreclose on it, they said there was a letter in the file from O.J. Simpson saying 'the judgment is no good, because I didn't do it.' "

Via Mark Thompson.

Advertisement

Kevin Drum is a political blogger for Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here.

Comments

Jumping over teams

Submitted by anomaly on Thu Oct. 29, 2009 1:14 PM PDT.

of tackles proved to be easier for O.J. than jumping over teams of lawyers. But isn't a second mortgage on a house you no longer own plain old fraud?

Signing statements

Submitted by daCascadian (not verified) on Thu Oct. 29, 2009 4:48 PM PDT.

Even OJ is using them now.

The Bush II legacy is gonna be with us for some time.

"...Poor traceability enables plausible deniability...." - Valdis Krebs

Wow

Submitted by Randy Paul on Thu Oct. 29, 2009 5:54 PM PDT.

OMFG

seems inaccurate

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu Oct. 29, 2009 6:19 PM PDT.

This doesn't make any sense.

People like OJ buy homes in Florida because Florida's homestead laws protect their house (no matter how expensive) from being sold to satisfy judgment creditors. Someone who has a mortgage in Florida just doesn't need to be concerned about judgments against the mortgagor. Someone who has a judgment against a florida homeowner can't sell that house to satisfy the judgment.

Florida Homestead Law

Submitted by nepeta on Thu Oct. 29, 2009 7:32 PM PDT.

Could this be the problem? Was this OJ's primary residence?

"To qualify for homestead protection, a debtor must be a permanent Florida resident and the homestead property must be his primary place of residence. Property purchased as a future residence is unprotected until the property is occupied as a principal residence. A second home or investment property cannot be considered a Florida homestead."