Countrywide moves for summary judgment in $30 courier fee case

Countrywide Home Loans has mysteriously moved for summary judgment in a suit over a $30 courier fee it charged at the closing of a loan.

The lender filed the facts behind its June 20 motion under seal.

Madison County Circuit Judge Don Weber set a hearing Oct. 18.

The case lies at the bottom of a pile of 27 proposed class actions that the Lakin Law Firm of Wood River filed from 2002 through 2004.

Chicago attorney Malik Diab, co-counsel for Morgan and other plaintiffs, had previously represented Countrywide as a defendant in a similar case.

Countrywide moved to disqualify all the attorneys for improper communication, but in 2004 Circuit Judge Phillip Kardis denied the motion.

Morgan alleges that Countrywide paid less than $30 for a courier and secretly kept the difference.

Last year Countrywide and Morgan agreed on a protective order to keep some discovery confidential. By that order Countrywide filed its memorandum in support of summary judgment under seal.