Monterey County sues banks for elder abuse after a disabled woman loses her house.

The Monterey County Public Guardian is suing a slew of banks on behalf of an elderly woman, claiming fraud and elder abuse after she lost her Seaside house to foreclosure. The twist: Gin Casion, 79, has been under the care of the Public Guardian’s office since 1982 due to a developmental disability and shouldn’t have been allowed to sign loan papers in the first place.

Banks named in the Monterey County Superior Court suit include Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. Their involvement stems from purchasing assets of smaller financial institutions that failed in the financial crisis in 2008.

Casion, who remains under guardianship, was forced from her Seaside residence in 2012.

“It has recently come to light, that in their quest to foreclose on properties as quickly as possible, many lenders have been acting outside of the law on their foreclosure practice,” Deputy County Counsel Cathleen Giovannini wrote in the suit filed in September.

Representatives of Wells Fargo and Bank of America say they were unaware the banks had been sued and requested copies of the lawsuit from the Weekly.

While the suit was filed more than four months ago, no defendants had been served as of Dec. 22. Court documents say all defendants must be served by Jan. 29.

Casion had lived in her Seaside residence since 1968. Court documents say that she has two developmentally disabled daughters who lived with her.

The ordeal started in 2006 when Casion’s son contacted the deputy public guardian handling his mother’s financial affairs about taking out a loan on his stake in his mother’s property to help fund a remodel. At the time, the son was a civilian employed at a local military base, and the deputy public guardian believed that Gin Casion’s interest in the property would not be affected.

But that deputy was unaware that Casion’s son had already taken out a property loan in 2004. He lost his job and the “sky-rocketing variable balloon payments” on the loan became unmanageable, the suit states.

The county claims that lenders, loan servicers, mortgage brokers and title companies prepared false documents, as they required signatures from Casion, who did not have the legal ability to do so on her own. In addition, some of the documents signed required Casion to provide a driver’s license as proof of identification, and Casion didn’t posess one.

The Public Guardian’s office did not return a call requesting comment.

The case will return to court on April 5.