Jan Goldsmith called today to weigh in on San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre’s lawsuit against Bank of America’s Countrywide subsidiary.
The Republican Goldsmith, who is opposing Aguirre in the November election, said the suit is “just a lot of puff to get his name in the headlines.”
Aguirre announced yesterday that he is suing Countrywide, which was bought by Bank of America earlier this year, under state law that allows the city attorneys of large cities to sue companies that engage in unfair, unlawful or fraudulent business practices.
Aguirre says Countrywide did one or all of those things when it issued subprime loans to borrowers who didn’t have the means to take on such debt.
Goldsmith, a judge, said Aguirre is essentially putting the city in the expensive position of providing free legal representation to a slew of individual borrowers, many of whom may have lied about their assets to get mortgage loans.
“I have seen no precedent for this,” Goldsmith said.