Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. and Bank of America Corp. asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Texas counties accusing MERS of filing false claims in property records.
The counties allege Merscorp Inc.’s MERS was established by lenders including Bank of America to avoid paying filing fees as well as to ease mortgage transfers. The Texas Legislature approved of MERS’s appearance as a mortgagee in filings in county land records, the defendants said in a filing March 9 in federal court in Dallas.
“No false, fraudulent or otherwise wrongful activity occurred by filing security instruments naming MERS as beneficiary or mortgagee,” MERS and the bank said in their motion to dismiss. “There is no duty to record assignments, or other documents, since Texas’s property recording system is permissive not mandatory.”
Harris County Texas, which includes the city of Houston, won a bid to join a group lawsuit seeking damages from the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Stewart Title Co.
U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor allowed Harris and nearby Brazoria County (66583MF) to enter the case that could result in payouts of a much as $10 billion for all Texas counties, according to court papers filed by the plaintiffs.
Think about why MERS would want this case moved? Do they have a connection there? hmmm
National Mortgage News-
A federal judicial panel denied a motion to include the Dallas County district attorney’s lawsuit against Merscorp in the ongoing multidistrict litigation against the private loan registry in Phoenix.
In its motion, Merscorp, the Reston, Va.-based parent company of the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, argued the claims in the Dallas County case are common with the other MDL cases and meet the panel’s requirements that consolidation would promote the convenience and “just and efficient conduct of the action.” But the judicial panel ruled there are important distinctions between the MDL and Dallas County cases.
“Most importantly, all existing MDL actions were brought by homeowners or borrowers who brought suit concerning their impending or completed foreclosure. In contrast, Dallas County involves the propriety of the MERS system’s failure to pay recordation fees under Texas’s recording statutes,” the judges’ order reads.
Nueces County could join a group of Texas counties suing Bank of America and a related corporation over unpaid courthouse filing fees.
Nationwide, counties are claiming that a mortgage database created by banks is cheating the counties out of billions of dollars in filing fees.
Dallas County is leading the charge with a class-action suit against the bank and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins told NPR his county has lost about $100 billion in filing fees.
We know for a fact and the government knows for a fact that if MERS is on your documents, a cloud also exists.
Their “quick fix” might come as simple as accepting a modification, principal reduction or a refi, to cover this all up and creating new paper.
If any of your new docs have MERS or a like, what have you done again?
Statesman-
The ownership of tens of thousands of Central Texas home loans could be in question because of the actions of a national private registry that officials say has sidestepped the filing of proper documents with county clerks, the American-Statesman has learned.
The Mortgage Electronic Registration System was created in the 1990s by 3,000 of the nation’s largest lenders to “streamline the mortgage sale process by using e-commerce to replace paperwork,” according to the company’s website.
In recent years, the Virginia-based registry has exploded across the U.S. as mortgages increasingly were bundled and sold as commodities in rapid churn to investors.
Oh my, this is getting very interesting. Now who is going to pay for MERS’ attorney fees? Oops there isn’t anyone. Where will the Counties get the money they claim? The lenders? Shareholders?
We’re talking in excess of Billions and Billions if every state files one of these for every county. This is going to get interesting very quick.
It’s quite easy because most information is already on this site.
It’s so simple and no tax dollars will go to waste…. Trust me.
Bloomberg-
The Texas county that includes Houston will ask the state attorney general to investigate suing Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. over unpaid filing fees on behalf of all the counties in Texas, an official said.
“If this is something that affects county government all over the state, why isn’t the state attorney general pursuing it?” Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said in an interview today. Emmett is a member of the Harris County Commissioners Court and the highest elected official of the county.
“MERS has jeopardized the clear title of every Texas homeowner with a mortgage and has cheated Texas counties out of millions of dollars in property recording fees,”
– County Attorney Vince Ryan
My San Antonio-
Bexar County is poised to challenge a private mortgage-tracking system that officials claim has cost it millions of dollars in filing fees.
The district attorney’s office will ask the Commissioners Court at its Nov. 1 meeting for the go-ahead to hire a law firm to sue Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., which claims to hold title to some 60 million loans around the country.
HOUSTON – It was a simpler time when Edward Mahar bought his home in 1980. He has lived there ever since in southwest Houston.
“It was procedurally easy and we had a Realtor involved and basically the process was getting bank approval to buy the property,” says Mahar.
There were no mortgage swaps or complex transactions in the financial market that could leave your head spinning as is the case currently. For years, he knew exactly who held the note on his property.
“Since two years ago, everything is complicated,” says Mahar.
In case anyone hasn’t noticed but lately there is a PR move supporting MERS…but those moves will not help once every county in the US wakes up and begins to sue the machine.
Bloomberg-
Attorneys for the Texas county that includes Houston will seek permission Tuesday to hire outside counsel to sue Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. over unpaid mortgage-filing fees.
The plan was posted today on the agenda for the Harris County Commissioners Court, the governing body for the county. County attorneys will hire the same law firm, Malouf & Nockels, that handled a similar lawsuit filed by Dallas last month, County Attorney Vince Ryan said in an interview today.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s lawsuit claimed Merscorp Inc.’s MERS, which runs an electronic registry of mortgages, cheated the county out of tens of millions of dollars in uncollected filing fees. MERS tracks servicing rights and ownership interests …
Again, this is what I’ve been waiting for. As Professor Peterson says, “This case is scary because if Dallas wins then there are a lot of other counties around the country that are going to follow.” … And follow they will.
I already see them lining up one by one. You see just because you can develop a system and input data, doesn’t mean it relieves you from any responsibility of some 67+ million “errors”. They knew what they had from its inception.
BLOOMBERG-
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is among a group of lenders that may face a wave of new lawsuits claiming the system they’ve used for more than a decade to register mortgages cheated cash-strapped counties out of millions of dollars.
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said state attorneys general and county officials across the U.S. have expressed interest in his lawsuit against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. and Bank of America, filed in Texas state court on Sept. 21. Dallas County could be owed as much as $100 million in filing fees, he said.
Listen up carefully because this is what we’ve been waiting for. Only wished all shareholders were named but it’s all about strategy and taking one bite at a time!
I have posted about this doctrine HERE and HERE in hopes someone would pick up on this.
Abigail C. Field-
Dallas County has just filed this complaint seeking billions from Bank of America for the 285,000+ MERS documents recorded in the the Dallas County land records. Dallas calls MERS a fraud by design, and says MERS’s shareholders should be liable for MERS has done.
The complaint explains that in recorded mortgages and other documents, MERS claims to be a “beneficiary”, “mortgagee” and “grantee”, but that MERS is none of those things under the law of Texas for the past 100 years. As a result, the complaint says, all those documents are false. Texas law prohibits using a document with the “knowledge that the document is a fraudulent court record or fraudulent lien or claim against real…property or an interest in real…property”
MERSCORP, INC.; MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC.; STEWART TITLE GUARANTY COMPANY; STEWART TITLE COMPANY; BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION; AND ASPIRE FINANCIAL, INC. D/B/A TEXASLENDING.COM, DEFENDANTS
EXCERPTS:
III. AGENCY AND CORPORATE VEIL/ALTER-EGO 10. At all times material hereto, each Defendant was acting by and through its actual, apparent, ostensible, or by estoppel agents and/or employees.
11. Plaintiff moves the Court pierce the MERSCORP and MERS corporate veils and impose liability upon Defendants Stewart and BOA as shareholders in MERSCORP for the activities of MERSCORP and MERS alleged herein. Recognizing the corporate existence of MERSCORP and MERS separate from their shareholders, including Stewart and BOA, would cause an inequitable result or injustice, or would be a cloak for fraud or illegality. MERSCORP and MERS were undercapitalized in light of the nature and risk of their business. The corporate fiction is being used to justify wrongs, as a means of perpetrating fraud, as a mere tool or business conduit for others, as a means of evading existing legal obligations, to perpetrate monopoly and unlawfully gain monopolistic control over the real property recording system in the State of Texas, and to circumvent statutory obligations.
There could be $50-$100 MILLION in unfiled fees due to Dallas County!
PegususNews-
In an interview with Dallas South News, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins says he plans to file a lawsuit against a company representing organizations who he says owes the county millions of dollars.
A group of private attorneys is working with the county on a claim against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) who they say has avoided paying county fees. The suit will be filed in Dallas County District Court sometime next week.
Today Dallas County District Attorney (DA) Craig Watkins announced that the DA’s office is considering asserting claims against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) for the possible loss of millions in revenues to Dallas County.
MERS, a subsidiary of MERSCORP, Inc., was established and is owned by banks and members of the mortgage finance industry. MERS was established to act as a shadow recording system for the millions of mortgages in the United States and facilitate the buying and selling of mortgage rights as commodities.
Recent Comments