A landmark ruling in a recent Kansas Supreme Court case may have given millions of distressed homeowners the legal wedge they need to avoid foreclosure. In Landmark National Bank v. Kesler, 2009 Kan. LEXIS 834, the Kansas Supreme Court held that a nominee company called MERS has no right or standing to bring an action for foreclosure. MERS is an acronym for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a private company that registers mortgages electronically and tracks changes in ownership. The significance of the holding is that if MERS has no standing to foreclose, then nobody has standing to foreclose – on 60 million mortgages. That is the number of American mortgages currently reported to be held by MERS. Over half of all new U.S. residential mortgage loans are registered with MERS and recorded in its name. Holdings of the Kansas Supreme Court are not binding on the rest of the country, but they are dicta of which other courts take note; and the reasoning behind the decision is sound.For rest of article click HERE
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Carlos, sorry I didn't see this before. You've been around this industry for some time. What do you think this will mean for the industry? Chances of this spreading to other states? Could this be such a large decision that we have no idea yet what may happen?
It will probably turn into another monkey wrench for the banks. Yes, it has already spread to many states of the country. As a matter of fact there's been someone here in Las Vegas fighting the banks on this basis for over 5 months. I am sure banks will find a way to resolve this issue.
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