When we last looked in on the city of Cleveland's baseless and futile lawsuit against Wall Street investment banks, we thought the butt kicking administered by federal district court judge Sara Lioi would not deter the too-cynical-to-quit mayor of that fair city from continuing this idiotic litigation until the final appellate court reachable put a bullet in its head. Unfortunately, we were correct. According to an article on Housing Wire's blog, a three judge panel of the US Sixth Circuit Court of appeals has handed Cleveland another smackdown by upholding the district court and, once again, telling the city what we told them in January 2008: you can't prove causation.
The original case, filed in 2008, pinpointed big name defendants such as Ameriquest Mortgage Company, Bank of America, Bear Stearns Companies, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch, just to name a few, of engaging in risky lending activities beginning as early as 2003. The city claimed they were responsible for the rise in foreclosures to over 7,500 in 2007, up from fewer than 120 in 2002.
Countering this claim and others made by the city of Cleveland, Senior Judge Richard Suhrheinrich wrote in a 15-page opinion that "[t]he case of the alleged harms is a set of actions (neglect of property, starting fires, looting, and dealing drugs) that is completely distinct from the asserted misconduct (financing subprime loans)."
As we noted in 2008, the downfall of Cleveland has been a long time coming, and the causes are more deeply rooted than the subprime mortgage bubble of the last decade.
Crime, poverty, high taxes, a business-unfriendly environment, a lack of cohesive vision for the future and the will to implement that vision even if it existed, all might have had something to do with Cleveland's present woes...Not that these head slaps will deter the political hacks from keeping up this charade that's fooling no one. According to Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer, the city plans to keep on appealing until its appeals finally run out.
Law Director Robert Triozzi said Tuesday that the 3-0 ruling by the three-judge panel was disappointing. He said the city plans to ask the entire 6th Circuit to hear the appeal."When you look at our complaint and the allegations we made, it has become accepted throughout this country as to the consequences of the actions of these Wall Street firms," Triozzi said.
When you state that an assertion that has been soundly refuted by four federal judges on two different courts is an "accepted truth throughout the country" and you do it without dissolving in giggles, you're a true champion of dissimulation. Here's a hat tip to Mr. Triozzi and the rest of the tax dollar wasters in Cleveland. You folks are the Platonic ideal of the Bud Light Gangster Rapper Posse Member. Real men of genius.
