Posted August 1, 20138:05 am
The successful consumer-rights lawyering of two local attorneys"”Tom Theado and Jack Malicki"”has provided nearly $30,000 to improve the enforcement of the rights of real estate customers in Lorain County. The grants"”to The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and to The Lorain County Urban League "”result from a Lorain County class-action lawsuit known as Hill v. Moneytree of Ohio, in which Attorneys Theado and Malicki were successful in recovering money against a now defunct mortgage broker for its customers.
In the Hill lawsuit, a mortgage broker had violated Ohio's laws and its customers sued with Theado and Malicki as their attorneys. After seven years of fighting in various courts, the customers were finally successful and obtained a judgment against the broker, got the broker's surety bond to pay, and then distributed the recovery among the broker's customers who submitted claims. Each of those customers was paid 100% of their individual claims. But the broker's violations had occurred years ago and the broker's records were lost when it went out of business. As a result, a portion of the recovery went unclaimed. That sometimes happens in class actions. When it does, the judge overseeing the lawsuit may order that the unclaimed funds be distributed to what would be the next best use of the money for the indirect benefit of the class.
That's what happened in this lawsuit. Attorneys Theado and Malicki recommended The The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and Lorain County Urban League to receive the unclaimed funds. Judge James Burge agreed. Judge Burge ordered that fifty percent of the monies unclaimed in the Hill v. Moneytree class action be disbursed to The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland to assist in the enforcement of the rights of real estate customers in Lorain County, as follows:
$14,886.24 to The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, to be used by the Society solely for the Society's services in cases from Lorain County relating to consumer rights of Ohio homeowners in the real estate and foreclosure context, including (but not being limited to) the Society's provision of legal representation of, and advocacy for, mortgage-loan borrowers.
Tom Theado is a partner in the Lorain, Ohio, law firm of Gary, Naegele & Theado. He has represented the interest of consumers, in a variety of national and regional class actions, since 1988. He is the former president of the Lorain County Bar Association.
Attorney Jack Malicki is the proprietor of an Elyria, Ohio, law firm entitled: The Law Office of Jack Malicki, LLC. He practices exclusively in the area of consumer-rights litigation. He has twice been named a "Rising Star" by Super Lawyers ®.