The Erie office, which is part of the state Attorney General's Office, handled the case, since most of the complaints originated in the Erie area.
Lomas denies any wrongdoing, a company spokesman said yesterday.
No complaints about that practice were filed in the Philadelphia area, Goodemote said.
As part of the settlement, Lomas agreed to pay $10,000 in investigation costs. Lomas Mortgage was known as The Lomas & Nettleton Co. at the time of the complaint.
In a related complaint about Lomas' mortgage practices, the company agreed to establish a $195,000 fund from which as many as 150 Pennsylvania residents, including some from the Philadelphia area, may be reimbursed up to $400 each.
That settlement came in April in a federal court case brought in 1987 by Mario and Jan Zacharjasz of Lafayette Hill. The couple said Lomas had charged them hundreds of dollars to "lock in" a mortgage rate that Lomas employees knew was not available.
The case was expanded into a class action suit, with 150 borrowers certified as potential claimants.
Lomas contended that the couple did not submit all necessary financial and other documents within the time period during which the rate was guaranteed, according to Jerome R. Richter, Lomas' attorney in the case.
The company settled the case to save further costs of litigation, Richter said.
Under the settlement, Richter said, each of the 150 claims will be submitted to the Better Business Bureau for arbitration. He said Lomas intended to contest many of them.
Money remaining in the fund after all claims are settled will be given to Pennsylvania State University.
