It’s the stuff of nightmares. You think you have cleared all of the debt on your home when it goes into foreclosure, only for that debt to crawl up years later and attack you....more
A recent decision from the North Carolina Court of Appeals illustrates the wrong way to refinance a loan. In Midfirst Bank v. Brown, a refinancing lender cancelled a deed of trust that should have been assigned to it and...more
In a February 11, 2022 Order, the Court of Common Pleas of Washington County granted a Petition to Compel Satisfaction of Liens under the Deficiency Judgment Act (“DJA”) filed by a junior judgment holder represented by Tucker...more
Oscar Wilde is quoted for saying—“To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” This advice certainly holds true for a senior deed of trust lienholder contemplating foreclosure on real property security. ...more
A junior lienholder that receives a payment to release its “out of the money” lien may not have to repay it if their borrower files for bankruptcy shortly thereafter as decided recently in Lauter v. Wells Fargo Bank (In re...more
It has been a little over six months since Ohio Revised Code § 1349.72 went into effect—a law that requires holders of junior liens on residential real property to first send a written notice containing specific information...more
Almost two years ago, Money and Dirt covered a Fourth District California Court of Appeal opinion addressing an apparent split of authority regarding how a lender can enforce senior and junior deeds of trust on the same...more
Since the 1992 decision in Simon v. Superior Court , California lenders holding senior and junior liens on the same real property were barred from both non-judicially foreclosing pursuant to the senior lien and seeking a...more
The Delaware Bankruptcy Court, in In re Nuverra Environmental Solutions, Case No. 17-10949 (Bankr. Del. July 24, 2017), confirmed a chapter 11 plan of reorganization despite separate classification and disparate gifted...more
As we have previously covered in a series of blog posts, the Nevada Supreme Court held in September 2014 that Nevada Revised Statute chapter 116 allows homeowners’ associations (HOAs) to non-judicially foreclose on homeowners...more
This is precisely the question that the Ninth Circuit recently certified to the Washington Supreme Court in Centurion Properties III, LLC v. Chicago Title Ins. Co. Facts of the Case - In this case, Centurion...more
What changes were brought about to the HOA foreclosure sale landscape by the passage of SB 306 in Nevada? SB 306 contained a number of important revisions to Nevada’s super-priority lien statute that will provide...more
Warranty/Guaranty Provisions in Construction Contracts - The most confusion I have seen in the discussion of construction topics concerns the concepts of “warranty” and “guaranty.” This article will address the...more
The Issue and Background - Debtors David Caulkett and Edelmiro Toledo-Cardona (“Debtors”) each filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief with “underwater” junior mortgages held by Bank of America, N.A. (“Bank”). In other...more
A Battle in the Making in the Oil and Gas Sector: Second Lien vs. High Yield Debt - In the oil and gas industry, there is a storm brewing between holders of second lien debt and unsecured high yield bonds. These...more
On Sunday, June 14, 2015, Colt Holding Company LLC and 9 affiliates, including Colt Defense, LLC filed voluntary chapter 11 petitions in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The case is docketed...more
Reaffirming its 1992 decision in Dewsnup v. Timm, on June 1, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court in Bank of America v. Caulkett, No. 13-1421, once again ruled that a chapter 7 debtor may not void a junior lien under Bankruptcy Code...more
SEC Provides Additional Analysis Related to Proposed Pay Ratio Disclosure Rules - On June 4, the Securities and Exchange Commission provided additional analysis related to its proposed rules for pay ratio disclosure. The...more
The U.S. Supreme Court held that a secured creditor in a chapter 7 bankruptcy case is protected from having its lien “stripped off” even if the collateral securing its claim is worth less than the claims asserted by a senior...more
On June 1, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling resolving a split amongst circuit courts in which the 11th circuit was the singular minority, addressing the permissibility of “lien-stripping” in...more
United States Supreme Court Begrudgingly Extends Dewsnup Decision in Holding That Chapter 7 Debtors May Not Strip Off Wholly Unsecured Junior Mortgages in Bankruptcy - On June 1, 2015, the United States Supreme Court, in...more
On Monday, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the principle that junior “underwater” residential mortgage liens can “pass through” a bankruptcy case unaffected. In Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett, the Supreme Court held...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a debtor in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding may not void a junior mortgage lien when the debt owed on a senior mortgage lien exceeds the current value of the collateral, provided that...more
On June 1, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett, in which all nine Justices joined in an opinion that reversed an Eleventh Circuit ruling that chapter 7 debtors may...more
On June 1, 2015, the United States Supreme Court in Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett, 575 U.S. ____ (2015), unanimously held that a Chapter 7 debtor cannot strip off wholly “underwater” liens secured by the debtor’s...more