One of the former owners of Bonanza Mobile Homes in North Platte filed a lawsuit seeking more than $375,000 from Citibank for reserve security held back on new mobile homes between 1976 and 1978.

Gloria Burke filed the lawsuit against one of the largest banks in the United States in Lincoln County District Court June 26.

From 1976 to 1978, Burke had an interest in Bonanza Mobile Homes of North Platte, which sold mobile homes and arranged financing through Advance Mortgage Co.

Under the terms of the agreement, Advance held back a reserve on each Bonanza mobile home mortgage in case the buyer defaulted.

Once the mortgages were fully paid, the reserves were to be returned to Bonanza, according to the lawsuit.

On July 6, 1978, Advance sent a statement to Bonanza showing it held a reserve balance of $81,562.95.

In August 1979, Bonanza was dissolved and all its assets were assigned and transferred to Charles Burke, Gloria Burke’s husband, including the reserves that had never been repaid.

When Charles Burke died in September 1997, full ownership and the reserves went to Gloria Burke.

The lawsuit says that neither Advance, which has since been purchased by Citibank, nor any of its successors provided any information that the installment payments were not paid in full.

All the installment agreements sold by 1978 should be completely repaid now, according to the lawsuit, so the reserves should be returned to Gloria Burke.

The lawsuit seeks a judgment against Citibank, with 12 percent interest annually, for a total of $375,189.58. That includes the original $81,562.95 and $293,626.62 interest.

The money is not a debt owed, according to George Vinton, Burke’s attorney, but money they had deposited.

“Since the mortgages have been retired, the reserves should be returned,” Vinton said. “Plus interest.”

Vinton said he sent a summons to the chief executive officer of Citibank

Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York. It is now the consumer and corporate banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup, the largest company of its kind in the world. It is the third-largest bank by holdings behind Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase/BankOne, with assets in 2005 of $1.5 trillion.

No trial date has been set.

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Frank Graham (North Platte Bulletin)

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