Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 146: Listen and Learn -- Mortgages and Priority
In an appeal heard by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the First Judicial Department of New York, the Court recently ruled that a court may reform a guaranty after the statute of limitations for a reformation of...more
Most of us wander through life unconcerned about the vagaries of house finance laws until we decide we want a house. Candidly, because of how house purchases come about, most of us don’t know much about mortgage financing...more
Welcome back to the Bar Exam Toolbox podcast! In today's installment of our "Listen and Learn" series, we're focusing on Real Property. In particular, we're diving into the tricky subtopic of mortgages and priorities. In...more
A recent decision from The Supreme Court of Florida (the “Florida Supreme Court”) in WVMF Funding v. Luisa Palmero, et al. (Fl. S. Ct.; SC19-1920, June 24, 2021) held that, while a note and mortgage must be read together, in...more
Shareholder Derivative Lawsuit Aungst v. Light, 9th Dist. Summit No. 29349, 2020-Ohio-3347 In this appeal, the Ninth Appellate District affirmed the trial court’s decision, finding that when a shareholder’s derivative...more
Real Property Update - Foreclosure / Bankruptcy / Surrender: borrower cannot challenge judgment of foreclosure entered upon judicial notice of his statement of intention to surrender the property and order of discharge...more
In In re Fortin, 598 B.R. 689 (Bankr. D. Mass. 2019), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts considered whether a lender may enforce a mortgage despite the unenforceability of the underlying...more
Late last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held in Regions Bank v. Legal Outsource PA, No. 17-11736, 2019 WL 4051703 (11th Cir. Aug 28, 2019), that a loan guarantor does not qualify as an “applicant”...more
Two recent Massachusetts Appeals Court decisions offer both clarity and caution to mortgage lenders seeking to enforce their loan documents. These decisions address the importance of properly drafting prepayment provisions in...more
Real Property Update - Foreclosure / Attorneys' Fees: borrower not entitled to attorneys' fees for prevailing on lender's claim for reformation of mortgage, where lender prevailed on claim of foreclosure without...more
In an opinion issued recently, Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal joined other Florida appellate courts in holding that the five-year statute of limitations to bring an action to enforce a promissory note and/or...more
On October 31, 2018, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal recently distinguished two of its prior opinions and held that a foreclosure plaintiff does not lose its standing as a holder of a negotiable instrument if it...more
As attorneys representing the financial services industry well know, the financial crisis of 2007-2008 resulted in a wave of foreclosures across the country as borrowers struggled to make payments on their mortgages. The...more
As covered earlier this week in a legal alert, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a report recommending sweeping regulatory changes for consumer financial services. Within the report, the Treasury also recommended a...more
Reverse mortgage lenders received a significant victory in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal last week when the court issued its decision in OneWest Bank, FSB v. Palmero. After previously ruling in Smith v. Reverse...more
In a foreclosure action, the Illinois Appellate Court recently held that the foreclosing lender established its standing by attaching the blank-indorsed note to its complaint, but reversed judgment and remanded for the trial...more
In a recent opinion, the Supreme Court of Delaware held that a mortgage holder must be entitled to enforce the underlying obligation that secures the mortgage in order to foreclose on the mortgage. As a result of the court’s...more
On March 1st, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal affirmatively held that a mortgage holder who fails to prove its standing to foreclose is not liable to a defendant borrower for prevailing party attorney’s fees. The...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE: Foreclosure/Sufficiency of Notice: although lender’s notice of default did not expressly state that property could be sold in foreclosure, it substantially complied with notice provision (paragraph...more
Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal recently issued its mandate in Rivera v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. confirming the finality of its decision to uphold the enforcement of an electronic promissory note (“e-note”) in a...more
Given the choice, a borrower in foreclosure may prefer that a jury determine her fate, rather than a judge. But by statute, “[a]ll mortgages shall be foreclosed in equity” and “foreclosure claim[s] shall, if tried, be tried...more
The Fourth District Court of Appeal recently held that a promissory note is a negotiable instrument even though it references provisions in the mortgage. Onewest Bank, FSB v. Jose Nunez, Case No. 4D13-48176, 2016 WL 803542...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
In Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company v. Dennis M. Conley, 4D14-2430 (Fla. 4th DCA Jan. 6, 2016), Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal clarified the methods by which a foreclosure plaintiff can seek to enforce a note...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