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Editor: David Reiss
Brooklyn Law School

September 17, 2013

Arkansas Court Finds That Based on Security Agreement, MERS Was the Mortgagee

By Ebube Okoli

The Arkansas court considering Coley v. Accredited Home Lenders, Inc. et al, 4 10 CV01870 (E.D. Ark. 2011) ultimately granted the defendants’ motion for dismissal. The court granted the dismissal with prejudice as to the plaintiff’s wrongful foreclosure claims. The court however, did not apply dismissal with prejudice to the plaintiff’s fraud claim.

The court held MERS acted within its role as agent when it transferred the mortgage to the foreclosing lender. Likewise, the court held, and ruled that the assignment to MERS was valid as such the court dismissed the wrongful foreclosure claim.

The plaintiffs based their argument on the allegation that the foreclosing lender lacked standing to foreclose. The plaintiff based this assertion on the claim that MERS was not authorized to transfer or assign the mortgage to the foreclosing lender and that the lender named in the security agreement was the only entity that could pursue foreclosure. The court, however found that MERS was the mortgagee under the security agreement as an agent of the originating lender.

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