Don’t ignore your foreclosure!

In a recent case, OneWest Bank, FSB v. Hawthorne, 2013 IL App (5th) 110475 (February 4, 2013), the appellate court basically told a homeowner who was trying to appeal her foreclosure that she should not have ignored it for so long, and that she should have acted with diligence.

The bank filed its foreclosure on April 5, 2010, and after trying and failing to reach Ms. Hawthorne directly, filed a motion for default judgment on June 21, 2010.  Judgment was entered in the bank’s favor just three days later.

That fall, Hawthorne file a motion, pro se, to have the judgment vacated.  She hired an attorney to assist her a little later.  However, neither she nor her attorney appeared in court for the hearing.  The property was eventually sold at a public auction in April 2011, and the court entered the order approving the sale in May. Shortly thereafter, Hawthorne tried to get the court to reconsider the order approving the sale, but she was not successful.  Thus the matter went to the appellate court.

Citing Malkin v. Malkin, 301 Ill. App. 3d 303, 310 (1998), the appellate court stated that in order to vacate a judgment, the appellant must show a meritorious claim or defense and diligence in pursuing that claim or defense both before and after the judgment.  Based on the facts of the case, the court decided that not only did Hawthorne not have a valid defense or claim, but that she had not been diligent in pursuing any purported defense or claim anyhow. 

The court affirmed the circuit court’s judgment in favor of the bank.

So if you are being foreclosed, what should you take away from this?  Don’t ignore the foreclosure, especially if you want to try to keep your home.  The bank may foreclose you whether or not you do something about it, but if you don’t do anything at all, the bank will foreclose you quickly and you could lose any valid claims or defenses you have.