Uniform Law Commission
111 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1010, Chicago, IL  60602
312-450-6600, www.uniformlaws.org

Contact:
Michael Kerr, ULC Legislative Director, michael.kerr@uniformlaws.org
Katie Robinson, ULC Communications Officer, katie.robinson@uniformlaws.org

For Immediate Release:

Seven states have enacted the 2010 Amendments to Article 9 of the UCC

June 15, 2011 – Seven states – Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Texas, and Washington – are the first states to adopt important amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Article 9.  The 2010 Amendments are designed to go into effect simultaneously on July 1, 2013; many more states are expected to enact the amendments next year.

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This isn’t the first time. For the first from 2002 go to THE FLORIDA BAR vs. DAVID J. STERN

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA

THE FLORIDA BAR,

Complainant,

v.

DAVID JAMES STERN,

Respondent.
——————–~/

Excerpt:

By the conduct set forth above, respondent violated the following R. Regulating Fla. Bar:

A. Rule 3-4.2 [Violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct as adopted by the rules governing The Florida Bar is a cause for discipline.];

B. Rule 4-3.4(c) [A lawyer shall not knowingly disobey an obligation
under the rules of a tribunal except for an open refusal based on an assertion that no valid obligation exists.]; and

C. Rule 4-8.4(a) [A lawyer shall not violate or attempt to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another.].

Scribd

MURRIETA, Calif. (KABC) — A family is being told the house they thought they bought in Murrieta actually belongs to someone else. The family says they can’t stop making their mortgage payments.

“Even though you’ve made your payments in full every month, you could get a knock at the door saying get out,” said would-be homeowner Charlie Zahari. “If you look at it, we’re renters in a house we can’t move out of.”

That was hardly the feeling last summer where there was all the euphoria of buying their first home.

They custom painted the girls’ bedrooms and sodded the backyard.

[KABC-TV/DT]

REUTERS-

(Reuters) – U.S. regulators could file civil fraud charges against some credit-rating agencies for their role in developing mortgage-bond deals that helped bring about the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Journal said the Securities and Exchange Commission was reviewing the conduct of companies including McGraw Hill’s Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service owned by Moody’s Corp on at least two mortgage-bond deals.

continue reading [REUTERS]

Via: Prof. Adam Levitin

You have to read Do We Have a Fraud Problem? The Case of the Mysteriously Appearing Allonge, to understand where this is coming from but here is a sample of what the professor says about the case below:

Which brings us to BONY v. Faulk. In this case, the foreclosure filing included a 3 page note. The note lacked endorsements connecting the originator to BONY as trustee for the foreclosing securitziation trust. This set up a motion to dismiss on the grounds that BONY didn’t have any right to do anything–it had no connection with the note.

But wait!  Suddenly BONY’s attorney tells the court that she is in possession of the fourth page of the note, which includes a blank endorsement. Puhlease…  What a ridiculous deus ex machina ending. Are we do believe that this attorney filed 3 pages of the note, but not the 4th? If so, I sure hope she’s not billing for that screw up.

But here’s what perplexes me. Suppose that an allonge is produced. How are we going to know when that allonge was created or that it even relates to the note in question? (Just so everyone’s clear–if the endorsement were created later, then BONY as trustee for CWABS 2006-13 trust had no standing at the time the action was filed because the trust didn’t own the note at that time.) How do we know that this attorney isn’t engaged in fraud on the court (and a host of other violations of state and federal law)?

And this isn’t even getting into the question of whether the PSA at issue requires specific endorsements, not endorsements in blank. As it turns out that’s a problem in this particular case. Here’s the PSA for CWABS 2006-13 trust.  Section 2.01(g)(1) provides that the Depositor deliver to the trustee:

the original Mortgage Note, endorsed by manual of facsimile signature in blank in the following form: “Pay to the order of _______ without recourse”, with all intervening endorsements that show a complete chain of endorsement from the originator to the Person endorsing the Mortgage Note…

Scribd

“Now allonges. An allonge isn’t a delicious throat-soothing lozenge from Switzerland. It’s a piece of paper that goes a-long with the note. The allonge is basically an overflow sheet for extra endorsements”

Prof. Adam Levitin:

I have generally been willing to give mortgage servicers, servicer support shops (like LPS), and foreclosure attorneys the benefit of the doubt when it comes to documentation irregularities (to put it mildly) in foreclosures. My working assumption up to this point has been that the documentation problems have been a function of corner cutting with securitization based on the assumptions that (1) the loans would perform better than they did and (2) those that defaulted would result in default judgments in foreclosure, so no one would ever notice the problems. I’ve also assumed that lack of capacity has played a critical role in problems in the default management chain–the system is held together by Scotch tape at this point. In other words, the problems in the system weren’t caused by malice.

Continue reading [CREDITSLIPS]