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Judge hands landlord a loss
By JEFF TESTERMAN, Times Staff Writer
In ordering the judgment, Circuit Judge Marva Crenshaw rejected Green's claim that he was a victim of discrimination and anti-Semitic treatment by SunTrust officials. Judge Crenshaw also ordered Green and SunTrust to mediation regarding an estimated $150,000 in attorneys fees rung up by the bank's lawyers since the foreclosure action was filed eight months ago. SunTrust maintains Green agreed to pay fees equal to 15 percent of the principal in the event of a lawsuit. That's 50 percent higher than normally permitted by Florida law and amounts to a sum that Green's attorney, Richard H. Gaines, called "'completely ridiculous." Green, a Yonkers, N.Y. businessman, is the director of Amberwood Realty, the company embroiled in the biggest code enforcement case in Hillsborough County history. In May, the county padlocked the company's 212-unit Amberwood Apartments after finding hundreds of code violations. The closure displaced about 150 tenants and resulted in more than $1-million in unpaid code enforcement fines. After the apartments were shut down, Green's company stopped making the $73,422 monthly payments on the property. A $9.04-million foreclosure suit against Amberwood by Wells Fargo Bank Minnesota is now pending. The SunTrust case involves Green's 8,157-square-foot second home at 801 S Delaware Ave. The bank filed suit July 9, saying Green had missed making two $3,789 monthly payments on time on a $971,163 mortgage. SunTrust also said Green had failed to file a financial statement required for a separate loan, a commercial note that became due last summer. On Wednesday, Gaines characterized Green as a "dream customer" who had helped SunTrust meet its obligation to make loans in low-income areas. He said only anti-Semitism could account for SunTrust suing after Green was late on two mortgage payments. Green's claim of discrimination is pegged to his visit to SunTrust last summer, when he says he overheard a bank officer tell a colleague she had "this f------ Jew waiting for me." SunTrust called Green's statement "a fabrication." The bank filed a series of affidavits outlining the bank's diversity programs and asserting that SunTrust employees did not know Green was Jewish and therefore could not have discriminated against him on the basis of religion. Judge Crenshaw rejected Green's claim on technical, not factual, grounds. The federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act says someone cannot assert discrimination unless he has made a written application for credit. Green had merely made a verbal request to renew his commercial note, the judge determined. The matter of the mortgage loan was stickier because Green sold the South Delaware Avenue mansion -- to a partnership managed by himself -- and sent in a check to pay off the SunTrust mortgage even as the foreclosure suit was pending. SunTrust initially accepted the payoff. But the bank mailed it back after discovering it included no attorneys fees or late fees. SunTrust attorney William Zewadski said acceptance of the payoff was "a mistake" that occurred while he was out of the country and bank personnel was in flux. Gaines suggested SunTrust forfeited the right to the attorneys fees by accepting Green's payoff check. Judge Crenshaw ruled SunTrust must accept the loan payoff, but that the dispute over attorneys fees and costs must go before a mediator. Zewadski said he still intends to depose Green next week to see if the investor worth a reported $49-million is "'sophisticated" enough to understand the SunTrust loan agreement and its unusual provision pertaining to attorneys fees. -- Jeff Testerman can be reached at (813) 226-3422 or testerman@sptimes.com
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