Wells Fargo Shakes $300 Million Cook County Fair Housing Suit (1)

Wells Fargo & Co. escaped a Cook County, Illinois lawsuit seeking to recover at least $300 million for allegedly discriminatory mortgage practices during the 2008 financial crisis after a federal judge excluded testimony from the county’s two expert witnesses.

Judge Gary Feinerman of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Monday ruled that the two expert witnesses didn’t make valid comparisons when measuring the denial rate for Black homeowners in the greater Chicago area seeking mortgage modifications to white and Hispanic borrowers.

The two expert witnesses—consultant Gary Lacefield and the county’s damages expert, Charles Cowan, of ...