Mass Sup Ct points to USBank's Utter Carelessness! - Jim Moore

1/8/2011

This January 7, 2011, Opinion of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, U.S. Bank National Association vs Ibanez deals with two home foreclosures. Basically U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo just did not comply with Massachusetts foreclosure law. The clearest most direct comment about the cases is in the Concurring Opinion written by Justice Cordy:

"I concur fully in the opinion of the court, and write separately only to underscore that what is surprising about these cases is not the statement of principles articulated by the court regarding title law and the law of foreclosure in Massachusetts, but rather the utter carelessness with which the plaintiff banks documented the titles to their assets."

My personal observation is that the problem stems from the securitized mortgage pools that are doing their best to cut the expenses involved with foreclosure. The lawyers and paralegals are either stretched to thin or are inexperienced and do not know what they are doing. I have also dealt with matters where it appeared that the financial institution was lying to their lawyers in order to save money on taxes and fees. The mess created by the cutting of expenses and taxes by the various financial institution is going to take years to straighten out.

Justice Cordy also references some of the as yet unaddressed problems:

"What is more complicated, and not addressed in this opinion, because the issue was not before us, is the effect of the conduct of banks such as the plaintiffs here, on a bona fide third-party purchaser who may have relied on the foreclosure title of the bank and the confirmative assignment and affidavit of foreclosure recorded by the bank subsequent to that foreclosure but prior to the purchase by the third party, especially where the party whose property was foreclosed was in fact in violation of the mortgage covenants, had notice of the foreclosure, and took no action to contest it."

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