By Candice Ludlow
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-961075.mp3
Memphis, TN – Today, could be the last day in court for a lawsuit Memphis and Shelby County filed against Wells Fargo Bank. Candice Ludlow reports US District Judge Thomas Anderson will hear arguments on Wells Fargo's motion to dismiss.
Memphis and Shelby County sued Wells Fargo because they say the bank unfairly targeted African Americans with high interest loans, which when the borrowers defaulted created craters of blight throughout the county.
John Relman is the lead attorney for Memphis. Last year, when he unveiled the amended complaint, he said several Wells Fargo employees substantiated the city's claims. Here's what Relman says is in one of those employees' statements:
"She watched people come in she said she could tell by their loan file information, from the credit score, from their loan to valuation, she said, there is no way these people should have qualified for a loan. Yet they walked into the district manager, they came out with a loan."
Wells Fargo says that's not true, and have asked Judge Anderson to dismiss the lawsuit. Vickee Adams is a spokesperson for the bank. She says Memphis' economic problems have nothing to do with Wells Fargo.
"Under employment and the lack of finances for an urban area," Adams explained. "Many of those things occurred decades before a number of the loans we wrote existed. It's almost an attempt to recoup funds from our organization even though our presence in the city at the time was very small."
Now it's up to the judge to decide.
CORRECTION: We reported that this is the second time Memphis and Shelby County have squared off against Wells Fargo on this case, and that the judge tossed the original complaint. That's not true. April 1st is the first time the case was in front of a judge. Relman says the city amended the case on its own.