This Week in FCPA-Episode 80, The Last Jedi Edition
Bill on Bankruptcy: Supreme Court Cases Will Have Wide Impact
Wayward Financial Institutions Facing Increasingly Stricter Punishment
Grassley: HSBC Should Face Criminal Charges
Real Property Update - Quiet Title: Trial court abused discretion by entering final judgment quieting title when jury did not determine (1) whether plaintiffs were entitled to legal or equitable title or (2) which deed was...more
Real Property Update - Ad Valorem Taxes: in a matter of first impression, county's immunity from taxation does not extend extraterritorially to property it owns in another Florida county - Joiner v. Pinellas Cnty., Fla.,...more
Real Property Update - Restrictive Covenants: trial court erred by failing to provide injunctive relief in favor of homeowner as it related to trees planted in common area in violation of restrictive covenants - McIntosh...more
Real Property Update- Deed Restriction / MRTA: Marketable Records Title to Real Property Act extinguished association's restrictions where restrictions were more than thirty years old, predating lot owner's root of title,...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Standing: borrower's standing arguments failed because they were based on notion that note changed hands after it was delivered to World Savings Bank in 2007, when in fact the note...more
Misrepresentation/Concealment: genuine issues of material fact remained in dispute regarding whether board-certified real estate attorney committed fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation or concealment by falsely assuring...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - - Constructive Notice: a memorandum of agreement that is recorded in the official records of the county in which the property is located and refers to an unrecorded agreement entered into by the...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure: final summary judgment in borrower’s favor inappropriate where borrower merely asserted that lender mistakenly filed copy of original note with court, instead of original, and where...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Deficiency/Subject Matter Jurisdiction: approving the 3d DCA’s opinion that an assignee of a foreclosure judgment can maintain a separate action for deficiency under Florida Statutes, Section...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Standing: foreclosing bank did not establish standing where it failed to submit evidence it was in possession of original note with blank endorsement at time of filing of foreclosure...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE: Foreclosure/Standing: where copy of note attached to foreclosure complaint contained no endorsement and original note presented at trial had endorsement in favor of plaintiff, plaintiff required to...more
Look to Miami for the latest legal troubles for the country’s biggest banks. After most have finally put to bed the remnants of Great Recession RMBS litigation, a new tack by the city is looking to hold them responsible for...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - - Foreclosure/Standing/Hearsay: copy of a note with undated allonge containing blank endorsement sufficient to establish standing as a matter of law, even though bank did not have formal...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Requests for Admission: trial court erred by involuntarily dismissing foreclosure action based solely on lender’s failure to respond to requests for admission because lender’s...more
Last April, we provided an update on the Florida Third District Court of Appeal’s opinion in Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas v. Beauvais. In that decision, the Third District held a dismissal without prejudice does not...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - - Sovereign Immunity: DOT prohibited from using sovereign immunity defense in negligence action resulting from railroad crossing accident where DOT bound by crossing agreement, including indemnity...more
With its recently-issued opinion in Elsman v. HSBC Bank USA as Trustee for MLMI 2006-AF1, slip op. 5D14-1753, 41 Fla. L. Weekly D57b, 2015 WL 9491875 (Dec. 31, 2015), the Fifth DCA has added to a growing body of case law...more
The ownership of the promissory note by a subsidiary corporation of the Plaintiff cannot alone establish standing to foreclose. In HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v. Ryan Kahan, et al., the Court granted the borrowers’ motion for...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Adverse Possession: appellant entitled to judgment quieting title in her favor because appellant’s predecessor in title had adversely possessed disputed strip of land by having it enclosed by a...more
As Florida works through its foreclosure backlog, many of the cases remaining are those with complications, for example a lost promissory note. Such issues are not insurmountable, but do require an attention to detail. For...more
The opinion of Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal in Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas v. Beauvais, No. 3D14-575, 2014 WL 7156961 (Fla. 3d DCA Dec. 17, 2014) has been a lightning rod for criticism from federal courts in...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Eviction/Summary Judgment: Error to grant summary judgment where plaintiff failed to refute multiple affirmative defenses including an assertion that the eviction would cause an inequitable...more
Foreclosure: trial court abused its discretion in dismissing foreclosure action with prejudice, cancelling substantial debt, and denying lender ability to refile a foreclosure action without making finding of facts as...more
In LNB-017-13, LLC v. HSBC Bank USA, N.A., 14-cv-24800-UU, 2015 WL 1546150 (S.D. Fla. April 7, 2015), Judge Ursula Ungaro revisited the familiar topic of the statute of limitations for mortgage foreclosure and previously...more
A panel of the Commonwealth Court held that the trial court properly denied a mortgage holder’s petition to set aside the judicial tax sale of a property in Lackawanna County due to alleged improper service of notice and...more