WisBar News-
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled (5-2) that an attorney’s presentment of an original note secured by a mortgage in court was enough to establish that the bank was entitled to judgment of foreclosure based on “possession” of the note.
That is, in Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. v. Wuensch, 2018 WI 35 (April 17, 2018), the majority ruled that “presentment of a party’s attorney of an original, wet-ink note endorsed in blank is admissible evidence and enforceable against the borrower without further proof that the holder had possession at the time the foreclosure action was filed.”
The majority’s decision reversed the appeals court, which had ruled that an attorney’s “possession” of a purported original note, endorsed in blank, was not sufficient to prove the attorney’s client “possessed” the note for purposes of a foreclosure action.