(This story has been updated to reflect the latest court filings.)
A bank will sell Franklin County Treasurer Cheryl Brooks Sullivan’s home as part of a settlement agreement that resolves her foreclosure case.
In a joint motion in Franklin County Common Pleas Court posted online late on Aug. 12, U.S. Bank National Association and Brooks Sullivan notified the court they had reached a settlement and wished to close the case.
“Ms. Brooks Sullivan is allowing the sale of the property on her own terms, as outlined in the document. We don’t have any other comment,” said Troy Doucet, an attorney for Brooks Sullivan.
U.S. Bank National Association also agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to Brooks Sullivan to resolve her counterclaims and avoid a trial set for Aug. 25. Brooks Sullivan had alleged that the banks involved violated federal consumer protection laws. The bank admits no wrongdoing in the settlement.
Brooks Sullivan will give up possession of the property by Sept. 30, and the bank “may sell the property through private sale or sheriff’s sale, or be satisfied through payoff by Ms. Sullivan.”
This comes after Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page denied Brooks Sullivan’s motion asking her to reconsider allowing the foreclosure. Page wrote in a decision filed on Aug. 7 that she did not err when she granted the bank’s motion for summary judgment, allowing the bank to foreclose.
Brooks Sullivan did not return a call on the afternoon of Aug. 12, when the court records from Aug. 7 were posted online.
Brooks Sullivan has been fighting foreclosure since 2022, when a bank filed a case alleging she had not made full mortgage payments on her Mifflin Township home.
In other decisions filed in the case on Aug. 7, Page rejected the bank’s motion to dismiss some of Brooks Sullivan’s counterclaims because the bank filed its motion after the deadline. Page set a hearing on Brooks Sullivan’s motion to sanction the bank over this for after the trial. But this settlement agreement also resolves that.
In court filings, her attorney has said Brooks Sullivan came under financial strain after her mother died in 2019. Brooks Sullivan says she repeatedly applied for a revised agreement with the banks to avoid foreclosure, but the banks mishandled her applications.
Page wrote in her decision last September, in which she sided with U.S. Bank National Association’s ability to foreclose, that if Brooks Sullivan wins her counterclaims, she can only get monetary damages, not prevent foreclosure.
An attorney for U.S. Bank National Association did not immediately return a message left by The Dispatch seeking comment.
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird can be reached at jlaird@dispatch.com. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky at @LairdWrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Franklin County treasurer agrees to sale of her home in foreclosure settlement with bank
Reporting by Jordan Laird, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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