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What does the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foreclosure decision mean for the big picture?

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  • What does the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foreclosure decision mean for the big picture?

    http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmo...astrophe-risk/
    The 16-page decision in the case of US Bank vs Ibanez does not make for easy reading. But it’s a very important case: it’s a solid precedent saying that if a bank doesn’t own a mortgage, then it can’t foreclose on a home. That was the decision of the lower court in Massachusetts, back in March 2009, and it has now been unanimously upheld on appeal to the Massachusetts supreme court.

    After speaking to crack Reuters reporter Jonathan Stempel, I’m even more worried about this case than I was before.

    The immediate effect of the ruling, which covers two separate cases, is that Mark and Tammy LaRace get to stay in their home, despite being foreclosed on in 2007. And Antonio Ibanez gets title to his home back, which means that the bank will either have to let him retake possession or else pay him for his deed.

    Essentially, these homeowners bought their homes, defaulted on their mortgages, and then — after a long legal struggle — get to stay in their homes. It’s unclear whether they still owe money to any lender, and Massachusetts is a recourse state, which means that the bank could try to go after them personally, as it might had it lent them money on an unsecured basis. But in reality, if a bank does not have the ability to foreclose and the borrower is genuinely distressed and in default, there’s no point pursuing them for the balance of the loan.

    The legal craziness that this decision sets in motion is going to be huge, I’m sure. Anybody who was foreclosed on in Massachusetts should now be phoning up their lawyer and trying to find out if the foreclosure was illegal. If it was — if there was a break in the chain of title somewhere which meant that the bank didn’t own the mortgage in question — then the borrower should be able to get their deed, and their home, back from the bank. This decision is retroactive, and no one has a clue how many thousands of foreclosures it might cover.

    Similarly, if you bought a Massachusetts home out of foreclosure, you should be very worried. You might not have proper title to your home, and you risk losing it to the original owner. It might be worth dusting off your title insurance: you could need it. And if you ever need to sell your home, well, good luck with that.

    Going forwards, every homeowner being foreclosed upon will as a matter of course challenge the banks to prove that they own the mortgage in question. If the bank can’t do that, then the foreclosure proceeding will be tossed out of court. This is likely to slow down foreclosures enormously, as banks ensure that all their legal ducks are in a row before they try to foreclose.

    This decision won’t be appealed: the state law seems pretty cut-and-dried, every judge who’s looked at it has come to the same decision, and there’s no conceivable grounds for the US Supreme Court to take on the case.

    What’s more, courts in the other 49 states are likely to lean heavily on this decision when similar cases come before them. The precedent applies only in Massachusetts for now, but it’s likely to spread, like some kind of bank-eating cancer.

    If a similar decision comes down in California, which is a non-recourse state, the resulting chaos could be massive. People who are current on their mortgage and perfectly capable of paying it could simply make the strategic decision to default, if and when they find out or suspect that the chain of title is broken somewhere. They would take a ding to their credit rating, but millions of people will happily accept a lower credit rating if they get a free house as part of the bargain.

    The big losers here are the banks — of course — as well as investors in mortgage-backed securities, including of course Fannie and Freddie, a/k/a the US taxpayer. No one knows how it’s all going to play out: there’s certainly going to be a lot of litigation in every US state, and there’s a good chance that the federal government is going to feel the need to get involved as well. Not every jurist and legislator is going to see things the same way as the judges of Massachusetts, and there’s a case to be made that banks should have the ability to go back and cure their mistakes once they’re pointed out, rather than just losing the house altogether, as they did in this case.

    But of course the problem is that the banks can’t cure their mistakes: in many cases the original mortgage is lost, at this point, if it ever properly existed in the first place.

    The tail risk here is enormous, and there’s no easy solution to the problem. And this is over and above the problem of putbacks, or legal risk associated with the scandal of banks lying to investors in many mortgage-bond deals. And it’s certainly yet another reason not to buy a house right now. You don’t know if you really have title to what you’re buying, you don’t know whether you’ll be able to sell it if you have to, and there’s a good chance that as a result of all these problems shaking out, home prices could fall dramatically.

    Maybe we’ll muddle through this somehow — that’s still probably the base-case scenario. But maybe we won’t. And if we don’t, the downside here, to the banking system and to the economy as a whole, could hardly be larger.

    Update: Adam Levitin emails with three other points, all important:
    • The ruling should (but surely won’t) led to a ratings downgrade of every securitization trust with MA properties in it. The documentation sloppiness in Ibanez was hardly unique.
    • Notice how MA rejected the “mortgage follows the note” argument and also the “assignment of mortgage in blank” argument that ASF has argued is beyond reproach. There are (in my opinion) stronger arguments about the mortgage notes, but that wasn’t raised in this case.
    • The MA Supreme Judicial Court is widely considered the best state court in the country. No one questions the quality of the jurists on the court (unlike in some other states). It’s one of the few state supreme courts that can routinely compete with federal appellate courts in recruiting top clerkship candidates and the only state court I know of that has had clerks go on to US Supreme Court clerkships.

  • #2
    Re: What does the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foreclosure decision mean for the big picture?

    Originally posted by babbittd View Post
    http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmo...astrophe-risk/
    The legal craziness that this decision sets in motion is going to be huge, I’m sure.
    Good post, but one nit -- I think this line should be:

    The legal craziness that was set in motion by the banks ignoring the law, and confirmed as illegal by this decision is going to be huge, I’m sure.

    (Don't blame the messenger, blame the perpetrator)

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: What does the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foreclosure decision mean for the big picture?

      I am still unconvinced that this MERS/deed thing really makes a significant difference.

      For one thing, even if the banks cannot foreclose - I don't see any reason why they cannot go after a whonking big judgment against the homeowner.

      The original agreement was: pay or lose house. If this is invalid - there is now no legally prescribed avenue by which the debt owed can be discharged.

      The banks clearly can show the debt is owed. Whatever the deed situation, why cannot a bank just get a lawyer to sue to unpaid debt given that the original circumscribed limits of the agreement are no longer valid? And then use this to go after all of the rest of the homeowner's assets?

      Remember that the foreclosure was originally intended to benefit the homeowner - by restricting the bank's compensation in case of failed repayment of debt, the bank would get the right to legally take the owner's house.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: What does the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foreclosure decision mean for the big picture?

        The bigger deal is the effect on the Pooling Service Agreements of mortgage-backed security pools. Let the litigation begin!

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: What does the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foreclosure decision mean for the big picture?

          Originally posted by c1ue View Post
          I am still unconvinced that this MERS/deed thing really makes a significant difference.

          For one thing, even if the banks cannot foreclose - I don't see any reason why they cannot go after a whonking big judgment against the homeowner.

          The original agreement was: pay or lose house. If this is invalid - there is now no legally prescribed avenue by which the debt owed can be discharged.

          The banks clearly can show the debt is owed. Whatever the deed situation, why cannot a bank just get a lawyer to sue to unpaid debt given that the original circumscribed limits of the agreement are no longer valid? And then use this to go after all of the rest of the homeowner's assets?

          Remember that the foreclosure was originally intended to benefit the homeowner - by restricting the bank's compensation in case of failed repayment of debt, the bank would get the right to legally take the owner's house.


          correct

          http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...50963#poststop

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: What does the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foreclosure decision mean for the big picture?

            We of course will muddle through like we've been doing for the past 2 years.
            Recall we are in ZIRP environment in order to allow banks to "earn" their way out of the holes they are in from the bad debt so far.
            What's a bit more of the debt write off scheme and a bit longer for ZIRP ... everyone wins again (except the savers and financially prudent).
            Yes, banks will do all they can to have the debt repaid, but ultimately, after review and a legal and business case analysis, will decide what's in the interest of their shareholders, and that might be "write off the debts" and keep making money on ZIRP (knowing that they are also backstopped by the Treasury/Fed as they were in 2008).

            Hey, if the creditor cannot meet their legal obligations in order to force payment or repossession b/c of their own imcompetence/greed, then so be it, and banks' shareholders and bondholders take the losses, but of course that is not what will happen. The bad debts get transferred to the public ledger some more. Wake up my friends, nothing has changed.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: What does the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court foreclosure decision mean for the big picture?

              Most of the analysis I've seen on the ruling on this case is poor. Three key items I want to point out:

              1. No where in this ruling does it say that Ibanez gets his home back. Nor does it say that the lender can't immediately restart the foreclosures once they get the assignment issue resolved. All the ruling says is that lenders can't foreclose unless the loan is in their name or has been assigned to them. It even goes so far as to say the assignment doesn't even have to be in recordable form, so long as a confirmatory assignment in recordable form is recorded >after< the foreclosure.

              2. Few people seem to realize that a "bonafide purchaser for value without notice", meaning anyone who has bought an REO, or a foreclosure at the court house steps, likely will be able to keep the home even if the foreclosure is found to be invalid. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_fide_purchaser for a cursory overview. Judge Cordy briefly mentions the BFP issue at the end of the ruling, though didn't clearly state how it would be decided as the matter wasn't before them. The homeowner that was foreclosed on will still have a cause of action against the lender and may get damages, but it is unlikely they'll get the house back.

              3. Laws vary greatly by state. In fact the ruling makes mentions that Mass. is unlike some other states where the mortgage follows the note. So the rulings around these issues, including both assignments and BFP's may vary state-by-state.

              That said, I think it will be a tough year for lenders. They are likely to see many lawsuits from both homeowners, claiming foreclosures were invalid, and from investors, claiming misrepresentation and more.

              Comment

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