The city of Miami Gardens, part of Miami-Dade County, lost a lawsuit filed against Wells Fargo alleging the bank discriminated against mortgage borrowers because of their race. U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno dismissed Miami Gardens’ claims against Wells Fargo & Co. and Wells Fargo Bank N.A. because the city had failed to provide sufficient evidence that the bank violated the Fair Housing Act as it claimed.

Only two of the 153 loans issued to Miami Gardens residents cited in the suit were found to be problematic by the court, according to Law360, which Judge Moreno said was insufficient to prove the lender acted with discriminatory intent. In addition, the court agreed with Wells Fargo’s defense that the city’s evidence was flawed, as the loans it cited for comparison were not substantially similar to those under scrutiny for possible discrimination.

“There is no evidence of a statistical disparity, let alone evidence of the robust causation needed to show the policy caused the statistical disparity,” Judge Moreno said in the ruling. 

The conclusion of the Miami Gardens suit comes as several other U.S. cities, including Miami, await trial against Wells Fargo and other lenders for similar claims in their own jurisdictions. Miami sued Wells Fargo and Bank of America for allegedly targeting minority borrowers while engaging in predatory mortgage lending practices in the years prior to the 2008 housing crisis.

In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a significant ruling in the case favoring Miami and other cities claiming financial damage stemming from alleged predatory and discriminatory lending practices. That ruling allowed Miami’s and other plaintiffs’ cases to proceed in federal court.