Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 146: Listen and Learn -- Mortgages and Priority
A recent opinion out of the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal makes clear that the failure of a lender or its successor in interest to introduce and authenticate original promissory notes at trial may result in the...more
It should go without saying that people make mistakes. After all, people are human, and humans make mistakes. When people draft a document, especially a lengthy or complex one, it is not uncommon for a mistake to be...more
Typically, one would expect a lender to argue that a borrower was in breach for failing to repay a note on or after its maturity date. However, a friend recently alerted me to a case in which the lender argued that the...more
Obligations reduced to a promissory note are often accompanied by a written guaranty. The law treats the guaranty as an independent obligation. A case recently decided by California’s First District Court of Appeal —...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
A promissory note, in its simplest form, is an instrument by which a Borrower (the Maker) acknowledges its obligation to repay the Lender (the Payee). Historically, Lenders required Borrowers to enter into both a credit...more
Sale of the Business- Imagine Client has just received an attractive, all cash offer for the sale of their business; there is no financing contingency. The buyer has proposed a cash-free and debt-free deal....more
District Court Denies Payday Lender's Bid To Dismiss SEC Enforcement Action; Delaware Chancery Court Dismisses Camping World Insider Trading Derivative Suit; California Federal Judge Certifies Class Of Apple Common-Stock...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
From time to time, we review loan files for clients to confirm they have the collateral they think they do. Assume a lender has a properly perfected $1,000,000 mortgage loan and a $500,000 line of credit secured by all of the...more
Welcome to our inaugural issue of Promissory Notes -- our e-newsletter focused on banking and finance insights. This monthly publication will look at the top news stories in the industry, while also explaining WHY those news...more
On December 28, 2020, former President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act. Over 5,000 pages in length, the Act included revisions and additions to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The new PPP will: (1)...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 recently issued opinion by the Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District tells a cautionary tale regarding a lender’s failure to name a junior lienholder in its initial judicial foreclosure action. In Cathleen Robin v....more
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) continues to fine-tune the terms of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) with the release of a fifth interim final rule on disbursements on April 28th (the Fifth Rule) and a sixth...more
Alabama’s materialman’s lien statute (specifically, Ala. Code § 35-11-211) was drafted with the intent of providing construction lenders priority over materialmen as to debts relating to construction projects. This intent was...more
The Sixth Circuit recently ruled that a trustee’s claim that a novation occurred upon the execution of amended and restated loan documents could not be dismissed under a Rule 12 (b)(6) motion. The Sixth Circuit remanded the...more
Consider this scenario: You loan money to a borrower. You intend to secure the loan with a deed of trust encumbering real property. Your borrower signs a promissory note dated November 7, 2006. But your deed of trust is...more
A promissory note is normally given in return for a loan and it is simply a promise to repay the amount. Classifying asset transfers as loans rather than gifts can be useful because it sometimes allows parents to "lend"...more
On June 20, 2018, Judge Carey of the Delaware Bankruptcy Court issued an opinion in the Woodbridge Group of Companies bankruptcies enforcing an anti-assignment clause contained in a promissory note to restrict assignment...more
Arizona’s trustee’s sale statutory scheme provides for the waiver of all defenses and objections to a trustee’s sale that: (i) are not raised prior to the sale, and (ii) do not result in an injunction against the sale going...more
The United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina recently issued a decision that demonstrates the power of attorneys’ fees provisions in promissory notes and guaranty agreements. In TD Bank v. Jay...more
An annoying question for lenders is whether or not a lender can enforce two loans to the same borrower and secured by the same property. The nagging issue is usually raised when a lender makes (1) a first loan and an...more
What law governs a deficiency action if the choice-of-law provisions in the note and deed of trust conflict? The Arizona Court of Appeals answered that very question in ZB, N.A. v. Hoeller, No. 1 CA-CV 16-0071 (Ct. App. April...more
Last year the Wisconsin Court of Appeals threw businesses a curveball when it held that a contractual waiver of the right to a jury trial was unenforceable. The holding of the case, Parsons v. Associated Banc-Corp., 2016...more