Monday, October 31, 2011
Bevilacqua: In Massachusetts, the Other Shoe has Dropped
Earlier in the year, I blogged about a decision (Ibañez) by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court finding as invalid a land title claimed by a foreclosing bank that could not show that it held the mortgage at the time of foreclosure. Prior to that ruling, a stated practitioners' standard recognized as curative post-foreclosure assignments of mortgages. The Bevilacqua v. Rodriquez case presented the Court (previously blogged about here) with similarly sloppy handling of the mortgage assignments but also a third-party purchaser (and redeveloper) of the property from the foreclosing bank.
Earlier this month, the Mass. SJC again found that the foreclosing bank had no title to transfer and that the title claimant's more sympathetic position with regard to the botched securitization process did not create title. The Court dismissed his "try title" action and suggested that his equitable rights to the (as yet unforeclosed) mortgage might support a possible reforeclosure--a less than reassuring directive if the purchaser has invested in the property more than the lien value of the mortgage.
Adam Levitin (Georgetown) submitted a winning A.C. brief in the Bevilacqua case. His Credit Slips blog post on the decision can be found here. Congrats!
Jim K.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/land_use/2011/10/bevilacqua-in-massachusetts-the-other-shoe-has-dropped.html