Foreclosures: You have to have heart - except judges hearing them. By Geniusofdespair

Here is an opinion from the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami where they chastised trial judge, Valerie Mano, for showing compassion to a couple losing their home to foreclosure. How do you feel about a judge who has the capacity to show some heart to people who are suffering?

Here is what Judge Mano said:

I was trying to make everybody happy.
....
We have so many foreclosures here and I give continuances on these sales. I just do.
....
Unless it is so abundantly clear to me that it is just an abuse of the process, I give extensions on these because I don't want anybody to lose their house. If there is any chance that he can do this deal, get the money and try to save this home, you know, people are having a hard time now. They are having a difficult time. Everybody knows it. Businesses are failing. People are losing money in the stock market. You know, unemployment is high. It's just everybody knows that we are in a bad time right now and I hate to see anybody lose their home.

Here is what I say:



Here is what the Appellate Judges said:

In this regard, we note the cautionary words of Justice Cardozo concerning the discretionary power of judges:

The judge, even when he is free, is still not wholly free. He is not to innovate at pleasure. He is not a knight-errant roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness. He is to draw his inspiration from consecrated principles. He is not to yield to spasmodic sentiment, to vague and unregulated benevolence. He is to exercise a discretion informed by tradition, methodized by analogy, disciplined by system, and subordinated to "the primordial necessity of order in the social life." Wide enough in all conscience is the field of discretion that remains.
B. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process 141 (1921).