The video: After a court approved an eviction notice in northwest Atlanta, the movers and sheriff's deputies sent to the home refused to kick out the women who lived there: 103-year-old Vinia Hall and her 83-year-old daughter. Hall has lived in the house for 53 years. Her grandson, the owner, took out a $17,000 second mortgage, but failed to make regular payments. When news got out (watch a local report below), politicians, church leaders, and neighbors rallied to the family's side. "This really puts a face on foreclosures," one neighbor tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Faced with a public outcry, Chase Bank announced that it would work out a deal and let Hall stay.
The response: This is "nothing short of a Christmas miracle," says JoAnne Thomas at Right Juris. The Fulton County deputies had their "sadistic and cruel" marching orders, but refused to do the bank's dirty work. If only more of the "hundreds of thousands caught in the foreclosure nightmare" were treated with such "compassion." Indeed, the bank may have had the legal right to do what it did, says Chris Quinn at MySanAntonio.com, but nothing "would make their case look good or fair in the eyes of the majority of Americans." Well, give Chase credit for coming to its senses, says Marty Cox at The National Ledger . Now the story can truly have a happy ending. Here's how a local news station covered the story:
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