May 18, 2016 By Chris Bruce May 17 — Bank of America asked a federal judge to dismiss Miami's latest allegations of discriminatory lending, saying the city failed to support its claims under the Fair Housing Act. Miami, which says city-wide economic injury is the fruit of wrongful lending practices, filed a third amended complaint against Bank of America April 29 — its fourth in the lawsuit. According to Miami, the bank engaged in traditional redlining “by refusing to extend mortgage credit to minority borrowers in Miami on equal terms as to non-minority borrowers,” and practiced so-called reverse redlining “by extending mortgage credit on discriminatory terms to minority borrowers in minority neighborhoods in Miami on the basis of the race or ethnicity of its residents.” Bank of America late May 16 asked Judge William P. Dimitrouleas of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to dismiss the suit with prejudice. Bank of America said Miami still has not overcome statute of limitations problems and other shortfalls in its previous complaints. “The City’s four equally defective complaints to date demonstrate the City cannot and will never state a cognizable claim,” Bank of America said. A ruling on bank of America's motion could affect similar lawsuits by Miami against Citigroup (No. 13-cv-24510) and Wells Fargo (13-cv-24508), both of which also are in the Southern District of Florida. As in the Bank of America case, Miami filed amended complaints against Citi and Wells Fargo April 29. The court has given Citi and Wells Fargo more time to respond to the amended complaints. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Bruce in Washington at cbruce@bna.com To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Ferullo at mferullo@bna.com
Bank of America has urged Judge William P Dimitrouleas in Florida to dismiss Miami's latest allegations of discriminatory lending, arguing that the city failed to support its claims under the Fair Housing Act. Miami claims the bank engaged in traditional redlining “by refusing to extend mortgage credit to minority borrowers in Miami on equal terms as to non-minority borrowers,” and practiced so-called reverse redlining “by extending mortgage credit on discriminatory terms to minority borrowers in minority neighbourhoods in Miami on the basis of the race or ethnicity of its residents.”