Loan Guarantee; Bank Foreclosure; Bad Faith; Emergency Injunction
Bank of America notified a customer that it was foreclosing in 5 days on 13.5 million of his assets it was holding as security on a bridge loan to a condo developer. The Bank had recently become the customer's "private banker" and was managing his investments after he sold his business. The customer thought his securities were safe because the Bank had promised to provide the permanent financing on the condo project which would pay off the bridge loan and release his guarantee. When the Bank decided shortly before the closing date that it would not make the loan, the developer had to obtain more costly financing, which did not satisfy the bridge loan, and the Bank would not release its customer from his guarantee. The developer later defaulted, and the Bank attempted to collect the bridge loan by foreclosing on its customer's assets. The customer contacted his long-time attorney's at one of Atlanta's major law firms, but they had a conflict of interest because other lawyers in their firm had done legal work for the Bank; they referred the customer to the Firm. Having only one day before the scheduled foreclosure, the Firm prepared and filed a detailed lawsuit against the Bank and presented an emergency motion to the Court. The Firm succeeded in obtaining a restraining order that same day preventing the Bank from conducting the foreclosure.
