False foreclosure ends up costing bank

NAPLES, Fla., June 6 (UPI) -- A Florida bank says it will pay attorney fees for a Naples couple it wrongly slapped with a foreclosure lawsuit on a home they had bought outright with cash.

Collier court documents show retired Bay Village, Ohio, police Sgt. Warren Nyerges and his wife Maureen paid $165,000 in 2009 for a Golden Gate home from the Bank of America.

The bank and its representative, the David J. Stern law firm, somehow became sure the couple held a mortgage and were behind in their payments, the Nyerges' attorney, Todd Allen, told the Naples News-Press last week.

The bank started foreclosure proceedings on the house Feb. 16, 2010, but dropped the case two months later.

The bank didn't foreclose on the house, but also didn't pay Allen's fee as ordered by Circuit Judge Cynthia Pivacek.

The attorney said he tried numerous times to reach the bank and its law firm with no result, and finally opted to obtain a writ of enforcement to seize some of the bank's assets.

On Friday, Allen, armed with a court order and accompanied by two Collier County sheriff's deputies, went into the Naples branch of Bank of America on Davis Boulevard, approached Manager Erich Fahmer and played, "Let's Make a Deal," telling him: write a check for $2,534 in attorney fees for Allen's work in the Nyerges' case or the moving crew waiting outside would walk in and start clearing out the bank's decor, the newspaper said.

"I'm leaving the building with either cash, a check or a whole lot of furniture," Allen said.

After an hour of talks, a check was cut to cover the debt.