Fleet

INTRODUCTION

This appeal represents another example of what is becoming a well-established and predictable pattern. A homeowner in distress because of the meltdown of the financial markets applies to a lender for mortgage relief. The lender approves the homeowner’s participation in a government-funded program meant to lower mortgage payments and avoid foreclosure. The homeowner tries to comply with the terms of the mortgage modification program. He or she contacts the lender to make sure everything is proceeding according to plan and either receives assurances that it is or is passed from person to person, each of whom professes to know nothing about the loan in question or its modification; sometimes both. Then the foreclosure notice is posted on the door, and the house is sold.

Robert C. Fleet and Alina Fleet, appellants in this case, alleged just such a pattern in their first amended complaint against respondent Bank of America (BofA). Because they are representing themselves, their complaint is not in the form to which courts are accustomed. Nevertheless, allegations of viable causes of action can be sufficiently discerned to defeat a demurrer. We therefore reverse…