.

.

She’s a joke!

PALM BEACH POST-

The Florida attorney general’s office confirmed last week it is investigating a North Palm Beach-based law firm that is the subject of dozens of complaints by clients and at least two former employees who say homeowners were roped into expensive litigation against their banks with little to show for it.

The Hoffman Law Group, which advertises its services nationwide as a mass litigation law firm that sues banks for wrongful mortgage and foreclosure practices, also had its Better Business Bureau rating dropped last week to an F from a C-minus.

Whitney Ray, press secretary for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, said the firm is being investigated for potential violations of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and “related laws.”

[PALM BEACH POST]

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA  COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
FOURTEENTH JUDICIAL
CIRCUIT
COUNTY OF BEAUFORT

GARY KUBIC, in his official capacity as
County Administrator for Beaufort
County, South Carolina, and DALE L.
BUTTS, in his official capacity as Register
of Deeds for Beaufort County, South
Carolina,

Plaintiffs

v.

MERSCORP HOLDINGS, INC.,
MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC
REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC.,
BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., DEUTSCHE
BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY,
JP MORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.,
MORTGAGE NETWORK, INC.,
CITIMORTGAGE, INC., HSBC BANK
USA, N.A., HSBC MORTGAGE
CORP ORATION (USA), HSBC
MORTGAGE SERVICES, INC., SOUTH
CAROLINA BANK AND TRUST, N.A.,
COASTAL STATES BANK,COASTAL
BANKING COMPANY, INC., and
TIDELANDS BANK,

Defendants.

Myrtle Beach-

The other counties in the South Carolina’s 14th Judicial Circuit are following Beaufort County’s lead by filing lawsuits against a nationwide mortgage database, according to an attorney for those counties.

Beaufort, Allendale, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties say Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, owned by nearly two dozen large banks and mortgage services, operates an electronic record-keeping system that parallels the counties’ deed records.

The counties contend the system hides who owns loans, often by listing only MERS as the owner, not a specific member bank or service. That constitutes fraud and undermines the county’s property-ownership records, which state law requires to list the exact owner of a property’s title, county attorney Josh Gruber said.

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2014/07/04/4335257/neighboring-counties-join-beaufort.html?sp=/99/101/#storylink=cpy

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.

via a reader of this site:

Please see the link below to understand more information provided regarding the Home Foreclosure Procedures Act. Please take a look at the right column “Drafts” and click on links to the “Comments” under that column. These are all comments from outside people regarding their reservations about this legislation. Most of these comments are from financial services industry.

The homeowners need to begin asking their foreclosure defense attorneys to send in letters with legal issues in opposition to this proposed legislation to:

William Breetz, Chairman
Uniform Law Commission Drafting Committee on Home Foreclosure Procedures Act
Connecticut Urban Legal Initiative, Inc.
University of Connecticut School of Law
35 Elizabeth St.
Hartford, CT 06105

http://www.uniformlaws.org/Committee.aspx?title=Home+Foreclosure+Procedures+Act

UPDATE:

Protest At the Uniform Law Conference [LINK]

July 11th @ Noon We are protesting a national organization of non-elected attorneys drafting state law proposals, specifically “Home Foreclosure Procedures Act.” The Committee of non-elected attorneys selected to write this anti-consumer legislation is riddled with 75% bank and bank services attorneys from across the country.

We are meeting at NOON on July 11, 2014 at Westlake. We will rally and then march to The Westin Hotel (1900 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101) where the national conference is meeting. We intend on surrounding The Westin with crime scene tape.

Please attend and let the government know that allowing non-elected BANK attorneys free reign to write our laws, is NOT okay.

Westlake Plaza, Seattle
Join This Action!
Sign-Up to participate in this action and you will be contacted by the action host with more details.

MERS Macerated in Maine Yet Again by Their NEMESIS,
Tom Cox, ESQ

MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT Reporter of Decisions
Decision: 2014 ME 89
Docket: Cum-13-536
Argued: May 14, 2014
Decided: July 3, 2014
Panel: ALEXANDER, SILVER, MEAD, GORMAN, and JABAR, JJ.

BANK OF AMERICA, N.A.

v.

SCOTT A. GREENLEAF et al.

EXCERPT:

[¶13] Here, in an attempt to establish its ownership of Greenleaf’s
mortgage, the Bank offered and the court admitted the original mortgage, a
mortgage assignment, and a certification of a merger. The first of these documents
establishes that the Greenleafs executed a mortgage on November 30, 2006,
naming RMS as the lender and MERS as the lender’s nominee. In the second
document, which is dated April 23, 2011, and signed by Aida Duenas, “assistant
secretary,” MERS purports to assign the Greenleaf mortgage to BAC. To explain
why this 2011 assignment fails to support the Bank’s claim that it owns the
mortgage, we return to the language in the 2006 mortgage. In its definitional
section, the mortgage states:

(C) “MERS” is Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.
MERS is a separate corporation that is acting solely as a nominee for
Lender and Lender’s successors and assigns. MERS is organized and
existing under the laws of Delaware, and has an address and telephone
number of P.O. Box 2026, Flint, MI 48501-2026, tel.
(888) 679-MERS. FOR PURPOSES OF RECORDING THIS
MORTGAGE, MERS IS THE MORTGAGEE OF RECORD.
(D) “Lender” means RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE SERVICES,
INC
. . . .
[Borrowers] mortgage, grant and convey the Property to MERS
(solely as nominee for Lender and Lender’s successors and assigns),
with mortgage covenants, subject to the terms of this Security
Instrument, to have and to hold all of the Property to MERS (solely as
nominee for Lender and Lender’s successors and assigns) and to its
successors and assigns, forever. . . . [Borrowers] understand and agree
that MERS holds only legal title to the rights granted by [Borrowers]
in this Security Instrument, but, if necessary to comply with law or
custom, MERS (as nominee for Lender and Lender’s successors and
assigns) has the right:
(A) to exercise any or all of those rights, including, but not
limited to, the right to foreclose and sell the Property; and
(B) to take any action required of Lender including, but not
limited to, releasing and canceling this Security Instrument.
. . . .
[Borrowers] grant and mortgage to MERS (solely as nominee for
Lender and Lender’s successors in interests) the Property described
[below].

[¶14] We have already analyzed this exact language in Saunders,
2010 ME 79, ¶ 9, 2 A.3d 289. We concluded that, notwithstanding its reference to
MERS as the “mortgagee of record,” the mortgage in fact granted to MERS “only
the right to record the mortgage” as the lender’s nominee, and “having only that
right, MERS [did] not qualify as a mortgagee pursuant to our foreclosure statute.”10
Id. ¶¶ 10-11 (quotation marks omitted).

[¶15] As in Saunders, despite the language in Greenleaf’s mortgage that
suggests otherwise, Greenleaf’s mortgage did not, as a matter of law, grant to
MERS any right to foreclose on the property. Rather, the mortgage conveyed to
MERS only the right to record the mortgage as nominee for the lender, RMS.
There is also no evidence in the record purporting to demonstrate that MERS
acquired any authority with respect to Greenleaf’s mortgage by any means other
than that defined in the mortgage itself.

[¶16] When MERS then assigned its interest in the mortgage to BAC, it
granted to BAC only what MERS possessed—the right to record the mortgage as
nominee—because MERS could not have granted to another person or entity any
greater interest in the mortgage than that enjoyed by MERS. See Sturtevant v.
Town of Winthrop, 1999 ME 84, ¶ 11 n.4, 732 A.2d 264 (stating that “an assignee
has no greater rights than his assignor”); Arey v. Hall, 81 Me. 17, 22, 16 A. 302
(1888) (“[T]he assignee can have no greater right . . . than the assignor.”).

[…]

Department of Justice

Well, now that Wall Street Hedge Funds are getting into the rental biz, profiting off the millions homes that were stolen, this will intimidate the renters living in these homes. Perfect timing, dont’cha think?

Florida Realtors-

Renters who have never made a late rent payment often find that their stellar record doesn’t do anything to lift their credit scores when it’s time to shop for a mortgage. But that may soon change: Two of the main credit reporting agencies, Experian and TransUnion, are reportedly starting to incorporate verified rental payment data into credit files and using it as part of a consumers’ credit score.

“At a time when record numbers of first-time buyers are missing in action in the home-purchase market – many of them in part because their credit scores don’t make the grade – the non-reporting of key credit records is costly to them and the economy as a whole,” The Columbus Dispatch reports.

[FLORIDA REALTORS]

If anyone can find the data on this case, much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION ONE
STATE OF CALIFORNIA

JAN KALICKI et al.,
Plaintiffs and Respondents,

v.

JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.,
Defendant and Appellant.

Read the orders here: VICTORY — Montgomery County, PA v. MERS | MERSCORP, MERS GETS SLAMMED IN PENNSYLVANIA — PLEASE SPREAD FAR AND WIDE

Bloomberg-

Merscorp Inc., the operator of an electronic mortgage registry known as MERS, must face a trial to determine how much it owes Pennsylvania counties for shortchanging them on mortgage recording fees, a judge ruled.

Merscorp and its Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. unit violated state law by failing to properly record home loans that were sold or transferred, U.S. District Judge J. Curtis Joyner ruled today in Philadelphia. The conduct misled homeowners facing foreclosure and created uncertainty about property ownership in the state, he said.

As a result, the company must face trial on damages and on claims that it was unjustly enriched, the judge ruled.

[BLOOMBERG]

…….

In addition, Plaintiff has produced reports from two of its

proposed expert witnesses with experience in forensic analysis of

chain of title issues and real estate law – Marie T. McDonnell

and Charles W. Proctor, III. Ms. McDonnell reported on her

analysis of a MERS mortgage for a residential property in

Montgomery County which was originated with Countrywide Home

Loans, Inc. in June, 2005, was securitized in late August, 2005,

sold at least three times and foreclosed in March, 2013. (See,

Plaintiff’s Exhibit “G,” pp. 3-5). Throughout the process, Ms.

McDonnell found that there were five missing assignments that

should have been recorded with the Montgomery County Recorder of

Deeds, that the MERS Milestones data was incomplete and in

contradiction to the securitization deal documents, and that

title to the property had been corrupted by MERS’ failure to

record a complete chain of title. (Exhibit “G,” p.7).

[…]

Just breaking and more info to follow…

Reuters-

HSBC Holdings PLC : * Settlement of civil fraud claims against HSBC Bank to be announced — New York federal court official * Reaches $10 million settlement with U.S. government to resolve false claims act case — court official * Case relates to bank’s alleged failure to oversee reasonableness of foreclosure-related charges submitted to U.S. department of housing and urban development — court official * Settlement of HSBC case expected to be formally announced later Tuesday.

[REUTERS]

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.